Gravity Falls The Darkness is Here
by 444teme444
Summary: (New summary) Set before NWHS. Just when Dipper and Mabel thought they were getting a handle on things in Gravity Falls, trouble starts brewing once again. And now they have to face off against a dangerous new theart, a deadly vampire, relationship problems and worst of all, the terrible secret that Grunkle Stan has been keeping from them this whole time. First GF fic
1. The Beginning that's in the Middle

**Hey there. **

**For anybody who asks, this is set after the events of Northwest Mansion, but in an AU where the events of Not What He Seems have yet to take place. This is my first GF fic, so hopefully this goes well. And if anybody is curious if there'll be any of the now most popular ship in the entire fandom in this story, well just read on and you'll see**

* * *

It was a typical sunny summer's day in Gravity Falls. The Mystery Shack was open and business was as productive as usual. In other words, not that much at all. Wendy was working the cashier, stifling a yawn as she sat there, bored by the lack of customers.

Not even Grunkle Stan had come in to check on the business, which was strange as he was usually in by now, trying to invent new ways to exploit money from people. His appearances had been growing scarcer over the last few days, although hardly anyone seemed to have paid much notice

Within the interior of the shack, away from the shop, Dipper Pines was sitting at the table in the kitchen, surrounded by a books, papers and his all so important Journal that he didn't go anywhere without.

Dipper's attention was fully focused on what he was reading, marking down notes every so often as he skimmed through the pages. He was so immersed in what he was doing, that he didn't even notice his twin sister Mabel, enter the kitchen.

She walked over to the blender and started to throw in various objects and food stuffs, preparing what could only a shot of her famous 'Mabel Juice'. Once it was ready, Mabel poured herself a cupful of the juice and glugged it down readily. She then made her over to Dipper at the table

"Hey Dipper!" she said. "What're you reading?"

"A Moron's Guide to Ancient Glyphs" he replied, not looking up from his notes.

"Ohhh! What's a glyph?" Mabel asked, poking her head into the book.

"It's like a symbol that represents something" Dipper said, manoeuvring around her. "I'm doing research on some weird symbols I found in the Journal"

"Hey that one looks like bird" Mabel said pointing to one of the drawings. "And that one looks like a waffle! And that one looks like Waddles! And this one looks like Waddles with a hat! If you turned one upside down it looks like that-

"Mabel, please" Dipper said, pulling the book away from her, as some of her juice was spilling onto the paper. "I'm trying to concentrate here. There's this symbol here I found in the Journal and I'm trying to figure what it means."

Dipper pointed down to the open page of the Journal, indicating the symbol he was referring to. It looked like a very long w, with an extra v added to the end. It also had three straight lines intersecting down the middle of each gap, with a horizontal line going across the top and bottom of the lines.

"I bet I can figure it out" Mabel said confidently. "Here, let me try!"

Dipper handed the Journal over to Mabel, who set it down on the table. Mabel leaned her head closer to the book with a determined expression and put her hand to her chin, narrowing her eyes tightly as she scrutinized the symbol.

"Hmmmmmm?" she said after a few seconds of staring. "Hmmmmm? Hmmmmmmmm!? Hmmmmmmmmm!?"

Dipper rolled his eyes are Mable continued to make the same exact sound, growing increasingly louder each time and moving her face closer to the page.

"Okay!" he said, pulling the book away from her, which caused her to slam her face down on the table due to her proximity. "I think you can take a break from deciphering for a while"

"Why don't you take a break?" Mabel said, rubbing her forehead. "You've been at that stuff all day! Let's go do something else"

"I can't right now" Dipper replied, flipping through some more pages. "This symbol is important, I know it. And there's a piece of code beside it that says something about 'bloodlines' and 'great danger'. This could be a crucial piece of information on finding out about the Author"

"But, Dipper its summer" Mabel said. "It's the time when you stop reading. You have your head inside that Journal all the time. It won't kill you to put it down once in a while. We still have plenty of time to go find the Author. Come on, let's go do something more interesting"

"Mabel, everything that I'm interested is right here" Dipper said firmly, tapping his notes smartly with his pen. "There's literally nothing else that could distract me from this"

Just then, the doorbell rang. Dipper glanced over to the hallway as the doorbell rang again. He tried to get back to his work, but then the doorbell rang once more.

Dipper, then looked up at Mabel, who was just staring at him contently, resting her chin on her hand.

"Are you going to get that?" Dipper asked.

"Nope!" Mabel said happily. Another ring.

Dipper sighed reluctantly and got up out of his seat. He trudged over to the door, his legs a little stiff from sitting for so long. He couldn't help but wonder who was at the door. He had a few guesses about who it might be and who it might not be.

However, when Dipper opened the front door, he was very much surprised to come face to face with the last person he had been expecting.

"Pacifica?" Dipper said.

"Hey" Pacifica Northwest replied, giving Dipper a casual wave. She was standing there, right on the front porch as clear as day. This time she wasn't wearing a trench coat or scarf to hide her appearance. Instead was the same turquoise outfit she had worn on Pioneer day, minus the hat

"Uh, hey" Dipper replied back, a little more awkwardly.

Dipper could think of what else to say, as he just stared at Pacifica in a long silence. In the background, they could hear a small variety of noises, such as crickets, birds and then what sounded like somebody falling into the Bottomless Pit again.

"So… aren't you going to invite me in?" Pacifica finally asked.

"Invite you… in?" Dipper repeated, sounding confused. "As in to here? To… this building? That I'm standing in?"

"Uh, yeah" she said.

"Why?"

"Um, it case you forgot, I invited you over to my house. So now I'm coming to yours" Pacifica said simply.

"I thought you said you didn't want to be seen in this hovel?" Dipper said suspiciously

"If anything you should feel honoured to have a Northwest grace this place with their presence" she said a little smugly.

"Oh… right because you have such high standards" Dipper said sarcastically, smiling and folding his arms.

"And by the looks of things, you seem to have the lowest standards possible. Besides, I'm a little curious to see how the other half lives"

"Seriously? Having everybody in town crash your fancy party wasn't enough for you? Now you actually want to live among the peasant folk?"

"Look, I just came by to see if you wanted to hang out or something" Pacifica said, her tone biting. "If you don't want to, that's fine. I literally could find a million better thing to do with my time"

Dipper just looked at Pacifica, and rubbed his head, feeling somewhat abashed. He let out a deep sigh and decided to ignore his better sense of logic

"Oh, you know what, sure. Come on in"

Dipper stood to the side and beckoned for her to come in. Pacifica entered the shack, although it still looked as though she had some trepidation left as she looked over the interior of the house. Just then Mabel entered the hallway, carrying with her a crayon and one of Dipper glyph drawings.

"Hey Dipper, look. I told this one looked just like Waddles if you just-Pacifica?" Mabel stopped in her tracks and now had her eyes set on Pacifica with a bemused expression.

"She said that she wanted to come over to…hang out?" Dipper said, sounding as if he was still trying to come to terms with the notion. Mabel said nothing in response. She just stared blankly back at Dipper and then she turned her head over to Pacifica, then back to Dipper. Another few seconds passed before Mabel threw her arms wide as she could.

"That's great!" she exclaimed ecstatically. She sprinted over to Pacifica and hugged her tightly. "Welcome to our humble abode! Mi casa es su casa!"

"Okay, I need there to be a distance of at least three feet between you and me at all times" Pacifica said, firmly pushing Mable away from her with one hand. "And no hugging"

"Agreed" Mabel said happily. "Welcome. This the hallway. I know, it's probably not as fancy as the hallways in your house, but it's still got plenty of life to it"

As Mabel spoke, the carpet beneath them rustled as some cockroaches scuttled across the floor.

"Uh how do you not catch fleas around here?" Pacifica said with disgust

"Oh, don't worry. It's the rats you got to watch out for" Dipper said, walking past her with a small grin.

"What!?" Pacifica exclaimed, raising one foot into the air and eyeing the ground cautiously.

"Don't worry, he's just messing around" Mabel laughed, nudging Pacifica with her elbow. A second later Mabel dropped her smile and looked a little more serious. "You should probably tuck your pants into your socks." she added in a low whisper.

The two of them followed Dipper back to the kitchen, as Pacifica had her eyes scanning the floor for any movement

"And this is the kitchen" Mabel announced after they entered.

"Why is there a table over there?" Pacifica said, pointing toward it.

"That's where we eat" Dipper answered as if the answer was obvious

"You mean you actually eat in the same room you make food?" Pacifica said, sounding befuddled by the idea

"Sometimes we have to eat in the bathroom if Grunkle Stan uses any of that discount low grade meat" Dipper said. Before Pacifica could give any kind of response to that, Soos suddenly entered the room carrying with him a mop.

"What up dudes. Oh hey, it's Pacifica" he said as he noticed her. "What a surprise to see you here. Usual someone like you wouldn't be caught dead in this place. Kinda uncharacteristic of you"

"Are you thirsty?" Mabel asked her, with eagerness. "Wanna try a glass of my Mabel juice?" Mabel held up the blender cup and shoved it into Pacifica's face, whose expression quickly turned to horror as she eyed the contents of the glass

"Is that a… turnip?" she asked when she noticed it floating in the liquid.

"Don't worry, its fresh" Mabel said. This didn't seem to placate Pacifica revulsion as she watched the strange contents swirl around in the cup. She shared a quick glance at Dipper, who just shook his head gravely at her. Pacifica slowly pushed the container away with one hand. She then looked back in Soos direction and snapped her fingers.

"Pitt Cola" Pacifica said, as if she had given this order a hundred times.

"Your wish is my command" Soos said cheerfully, obliging immediately as he walked over to the fridge, presumably to get Pacifica her drink.

"You ever think about getting a new servant?" Pacifica asked Dipper and Mabel, gesturing Soos direction as he was bending over inside the fridge. "That one look kinda out of shape"

"Soos isn't a servant" Dipper said, offended.

"Yeah. He's just a guy Grunkle Stan keeps around here to do everything for him all the time" Mabel added.

"And unlike a real servant, I get paid less than as required by law" Soos said, now holding Pacifica's soda and handing it to her. "But Mr Pine's love and gratitude in return is payment enough. And the potato chips!"

After that, Soos left the room again, wiping a small tear from his eye.

"Wanna go see the rest of the house now?" Mabel asked, Pacifica. "I can show me and Dipper's room. And I can show you my collection of stickers, along with my macaroni and skittle art?"

"Uh, sure, why don't you go do that" Pacifica said, a little sardonically. "I think I'll wait here for a bit

After Mabel had left, Pacifica breathed a small sigh of relief. Dipper went back to his work at the table, while Pacifica started to take in some of her surroundings within the kitchen. She seemed to display a mixture of mild curiosity and some contempt as she examined the various items laid out. Finally, she went back to the table and looked overthe Dipper's workk

"So is this what you do all the time? I mean I knew you were a nerd, but I didn't think you spent your entire summer inside a bunch of books"

"Well, I like to spend my time being productive" Dipper replied dryly. "And in my spare time, I usually fight ghosts, zombies and killer gnomes. I'm sure that's not as exciting as extreme shopping or fancy yacht parties, but at least I get things done"

"Hey, I do other things besides shopping" Pacifica shot back. "I'm a junior pro in tennis, ice skating, gymnastics and I came first in last year's spelling b"

"Really?" Dipper said with a grin. "Did you have to spell words like fraudulence, extortion or Pavlovian?"

Pacifica looked at Dipper with a sour expression. "Ok, I don't know what that is, but I'm pretty sure I don't like it"

"Well, maybe if you spent some time in a book you'd what it means" Dipper replied. "So why did you really want to come over here?"

"I kinda wanted to say thanks" Pacifica said, taking a seat at the other end of the table. "You know, for everything that you-I mean everything that happened at the party last week"

"Well, just glad I could help" Dipper admitted, feeling a little flattered. "And I admit, the party was pretty fun"

"Well, you know, despite the evil lumberjack ghosts and everybody turning to wood, it actually was kinda fun" Pacifica agreed. "In fact, it was the most I've ever had at one of my parent's parties"

"So how have your parents been since-?" Dipper said, awkwardly

"They were pretty upset, but I've decided that I'm not going to worry about what they think of me for a while" Pacifica said with a vague expression. She then looked down at the books Dipper was carefully going over.

"So what _are_ you doing exactly?" she asked.

"Research" Dipper replied, marking some more notes with his pen.

"Research on what? What does any of this stuff mean anyway?" Pacifica picked up the Journal that was laying on the table and looked it over, but a second later Dipper snatched it out of her hand.

"Hey! Don't touch that" he said. "This is all very important stuff and I have exactly the way I want it. Moving any of this out of place could ruin everything I've worked on"

"You mean like this?" Pacifica innocently jerked her hand across the table, shuffling some papers around. Dipper hastily tried to rearrange them

"Or like this?" Pacifica shuffled some more paper. "Or how about-?"

"Cut that out!" Dipper snapped, covering his notes with his arms. "This is important, okay? I'm trying to find about the guy who wrote this Journal. It's not something you would understand. Now look, I need to concentrate on what I'm doing, which means I can't afford anything kind of-"

"GUYS!" Mabel shouted as she burst into the room, running to the table and slamming her hands down. "Guys! Pictures! And words! On TV! Can't form straight sentences!"

Mabel quickly ran back into the living room, while Dipper and Pacifica gave each other a questioning look at what just happened.

Dipper and Pacifica then entered the living room, where they found Mabel along with Soos watching the TV intently. On the screen there appeared to be new reported standing in front of some construction site. From behind the man, they could also could make out what seemed to be a large and old looking archway that was leading into some kind of tunnel

"_I'm standing outside the entrance to what may be the entrance to legendary crypt that could be over two hundred years old. Reports are unclear at this point, but speculation suggests that this crypt might in fact be the final resting place of Count Vladimir Von Voltaruss, a rich aristocrat who was also rumored to be a notorious vampire"_

The screen changed to show an old looking painting of what must have been the Count Vladimir that was mentioned. He appeared as an old, yet very distinguished man. Also, whether or not it was as an effect of the painting, he looked quite handsome. But not the kind of handsome you'd see in a prince charming or the cute singer of a boy band or even of a rugged tough guy. There was clearly some very dark and unsettling surrounding this man's appearance.

"Oh that guy is _so_ a vampire" Soos chuckled.

"Mabel, what is this sup-" Dipper began.

"Shh!" Mabel said as the newscaster continued his report.

"_It was uncovered during the construction of the new Gravity Falls parking lot. Rumor has it, that Count Voltaruss built his final resting place somewhere hereatn Gravity Falls, although no one has ever proven it. Experts have yet to fully examine the interior, but are saying that if this site could hold potential historic value, meaning that the new Gravity Falls parking lot will not be built here. Instead, it will be built exactly thirty yards to the left, as with accordance by town law"_

"And why exactly did you want us to watch this?" Dipper asked Mabel, still as lost as before.

"That's why" Mabel said, pointing at the screen. At first Dipper didn't understand what she meant, but once he looked closer at the picture on the screen everything became clear.

As the camera moved back over the entrance to the crypt, Dipper could see on the top of the archway, was a symbol carved into the stone that was identical to one he was trying to decipher earlier.

"That's it!" Dipper exclaimed as he moved up to the TV. "That's the same symbol in the Journal. Wait…of course, Vladimir Von Voltaruss III. That's what this symbol means. It's the three V's joined together and the lines intersecting of each them are the three I's. It must be some kind of family crest or something"

"Why is he clicking that pen?" Pacifica asked Mabel, as she noticed how Dipper had repeatedly begun to click his pen while he spoke.

"You don't want to know" Mabel replied

"There must be a clue in that crypt left by the Author" Dipper continued. "Like maybe another bunker or some buried treasure? Or maybe that's where the Author himself is buried!"

"Or maybe it's got like a secret stash of a hundred year old potato chips he hadn't finished" Soos suggested. "Bet they'd be real stale by now, but I'd still eat them. The stale taste adds fiber"

"Okay new plan. We're going out to explore that crypt" Dipper said, with new found resolve.

"Woohoo, grave robbing!" Mabel cheered. Pacifica raised an eyebrow at Mabel and then turned back to Dipper who had already begun to organise his backpack

"So hang on" she said. "You just heard about some creepy, dangerous, maybe haunted underground tomb that might have belonged to some evil vampire and you want to go exploring it in?"

"Oh yeah. Put it that way, you'd have to be insane or a complete idiot to go down there, dudes" Soos said in his usual blunt manner.

"Well, it's been a while since we did something dangerous, so I guess we're about due" Dipper replied dryly. He finished loading up his pack back and tucked the Journal into his jacket. Then he turned to Pacifica.

"You coming?" he asked.

"Huh?" she said, confused.

"I said are you coming us?"

"You're…asking if want to go with you?"

"You said you wanted to hang out with us. Well this is kinda what we do" Dipper said with a small smile.

"And afterwards we can have some Pmsapabs!" Mabel said.

"Pama-wha?" Pacifica spluttered, having no idea what Mabel just said

"Our Post-Mystery-Solving-Adventure-Pancake-Afternoon-Breakfast. We have it after each death defying adventure. I'm still working on the acronym" Mabel mumbled, a little embarrassed.

"Seriously?" Pacifica asked, as if she really thought they were joking. "So you think I want to go down to some dank, dark and dirty hole in the ground and root around some dead guy's bones?"

"Oh man!" Soos said, growing more astounded. "You put it like that, I can't see how anybody would even want to go along with you two at all. Kinda like what I do all the time"

"Well, if you're too scared, it's understandable" Dipper said to Pacifica, now sounding somewhat smug. "Not everybody is cut out for this paranormal stuff. It's best left to the _experts_"

"Expert?" Pacifica scoffed.

"I seem you recall you knocking on my door and asking for my help just last week" Dipper said confidently.

"Oh really?" Pacifica said, challengingly. "Well, Mr Expert, I seem to recall you freaking out when you got turned to wood by that lumberjack guy. You were like, AHHHHHH!"

Pacifica threw her arms up the air, one higher than the other, while putting on a terrified expression that resembled the one Dipper had made when he was frozen.

"Blah!" Mabel echoed, jumping beside Pacifica, mimicking her pose and face perfectly. The two them held that position together like a pair of statutes, until they both broke into fits of giggle. Dipper stared at them with an annoyed expression.

"Ohoh, that was so you dude" Soos added.

"Okay, great. So are you coming or what?" Dipper asked.

"…Yeah, I think I will" Pacifica said, smiling. "I mean, if you freak again this, time I might get it on camera"

"Fine. You coming too Soos?" Dipper asked.

"Oh no way dudes" Soos replied, shaking his head. "I just realised how dangerous and crazy it is for us to go do stuff, like exploring underground tombs and looking for monsters. It only now sounds a lot more sensible and safer to me to just avoid stuff like that. My whole perspective on the world has changed". Soos stared off into space and waved his hands, looking mystified.

Dipper and Mabel shared a small glance with each other before shrugging and walking out the door, along with Pacifica. Once the kids were gone, Soos walked back down the hallway until something on the ground caught his eye. He gasped as he bent down to pick it up.

"I found a button!" he said quietly. "My horoscope came true!"

* * *

**So what do you think? This chapter was originally much longer, but I decided to split that into the next chapter, which should be up by tomorrow.**


	2. The Crypt

After trekking into the woods, Dipper, Mabel and Pacifica found the site where the entrance to the crypt had been unearthed. The area was walled off by a set of metal fences. Inside they could see that there were still some construction crew occupying the area, their tools and digger machines scattered around, but it looked as though they would be leaving soon as the sun was slowly beginning to set.

The entrance to the crypt was close to the center of the site. It looked like a tunnel that was built into the side of some rock formations. The crew had set up a number of barricades and signs around the entrance, warning that it was unsafe to enter.

Mabel had volunteered to keep watch up ahead in the bushes, until all the men at the site had left, so that they could enter the crypt without any resistance.

Back in the woods, Dipper was sitting on the ground looking over his Journal, while Pacifica was lounging beside him, absently looking up at the sky.

"So let me this straight" she said. "The day you first came here, you found that Journal buried in the woods and it was written by some guy with six fingers and it told about all this weird ghosty stuff that happens around here and then you saved your sister from some gnomes who wanted to make her their queen and now you want to find out who the Author of that book was?"

"That's the gist of it" Dipper said, turning over a page.

"Wow" Pacifica said with some amazement. "You led an interesting life. Crazy and totally weird, but interesting"

"Well, that's what I was hoping for my summer vacation" Dipper replied. "Interesting, but weird"

"You ever thought of just getting rid of that thing?" Pacifica asked, indicating at the Journal.

"What!?" Dipper said, sounding shocked. "No way! Why would you even say that?"

"It kinda seems like all this stuff only started happening to you when you found that book" Pacifica pointed out. "It just sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth"

"This book has saved me and Mabel more times than I can count" Dipper said strongly. "And the person who wrote it must have seen some amazing things, but then something terrible happened to him and he disappeared. I gotta find out why"

"Why is it such a big deal to you to find out what happened this guy?" Pacifica asked, sitting upright. "I mean, nobody but you even knows about him in the first, so why should you care?"

"Pacifica, that's what makes a mystery a mystery" Dipper said. "It needs someone to solve it. If I don't do this, then no one will ever find what really happened. That just really bugs me, the idea that people can just go on living their life's without knowing what's really happening right underneath their noses"

Pacifica opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again and cast her eyes down to the ground.

"Well, you know, " she mumbled in a soft voice. "Maybe it isn't always a good idea to go rooting around in the past. Some things are better left not knowing"

Pacifica hugged her legs into her chest and then sank her head down on her knees, looking very melancholy. Dipper mentally kicked himself when he realised what he had inadvertently brought up.

"Oh wait, come on. Pacifica I didn't mean-" he began apologetically

"Guys!" Dipper and Pacifica looked up to see Mabel had reappeared. She stood before with a serious expression and salute. "Perimeter report. The chipmunks have gathered their coconuts and the McGuffin is in the porter potty!"

Pacifica turned to Dipper, her expression somehow begging him for an explanation.

"She said no one's around and the coast is clear" Dipper said with a shrug.

* * *

Climbing over the fence, they quietly moved through the excavation site and made their walk up to the crypt, with barricades still positioned out in front of it. Dipper ducked underneath one of the barricades and started to examine the archway that was in front of them

"Well this doesn't look so bad" Dipper concluded, moving forward. "Guess we can just-aah!"

A swarm of bats suddenly burst out of the cave, which caused all three kids to duck down low and screamed in terror as they flew over their heads. After a few seconds, it looked like the bats had all dispersed. The kids stood back up and they all seemed to relax once again.

"Ok, we got that out of the way" Dipper said. "Now we can go-ah!"

A second, smaller wave of bats now swarmed out from the cave, which resulted in the kids screaming again, though with slightly less volume this time. When the second wave was gone, Dipper raised his head up and gingerly took a step forward. Once he did, a wave of only a dozen bats came out and on cue the three kids flinched and let another small yelp.

Growing a bit tired of this, Dipper stood up straight and took just one firm step forward, with a single bat flying out of the cave in response. Dipper and Pacifica gave no reaction this time, while Mabel waved her hands and let out a very quiet scream.

Hoping that the cave was now devoid of anymore bats, the group walked through the entrance, with Dipper taking the lead. After walking just a few yards inside, they found what looked like a long stairway leading deep underground. Dipper opened his backpack and distributed a set of flashlights out among the three of them.

"Ok, we'll have to do this quickly" he said as they began to descend down the stairs. "Not sure how stable this place after all these years. There could be cave if in we're not careful"

"Well, I'm sure that your Journal will get us out if that happens" Pacifica said dryly.

"No need to worry. I have expert digging skills" Mabel said confidently. "I can burrow my way out of a mountain using just a spork and a bottle cap opener! You might even say I'm part ground hog". Mabel actually sounded pretty serious with that last part.

"You're definitely part something" Pacifica muttered.

After going down what felt like a hundred steps, they finally reached the bottom where found themselves standing in long man made tunnel. They continued to move forward, watching where they stepped cautiously.

"Ugh this place is dirtier than your house" Pacifica said, coughing up some dust. "Don't they keep these places clean?"

"Well, something tells me they didn't hire a maid to clean up down here" Dipper replied. He walked ahead a few more feet until he felt some fall onto his cap, causing him to stop and look upward

Tiny pieces of dust had begun to fall off the ceiling above them, and soon larger chunks of rock followed as well, until an entire mound of dirt broke off from the ceiling and crumbled to the ground in front of them, pushing up a cloud of dust.

But when the dust cleared they realised that there had been more than just dirt up in that ceiling. The broken remains of a human skeleton could clearly be seen lying scattered around within the pile of dirt.

The three kids stood where they were, frozen with slack jarred expressions as a skull rolled out from the pile, right to their feet.

"Maybe that was the maid" Mabel said, still paralysed with shock.

"Ooookay" Dipper said after a minute. "That's…probably the worst thing we'll see down here. Hopefully". He edged out around the skull and the rest of the skeleton, continuing down the path. Pacifica and Mabel slowly managed to recover and follow after him.

They didn't have much further to walk, as they soon came to what seemed like the end of the tunnel. When they passed through it, Dipper moved his light around to see that there were walls on all sides of them. Looking downwards, Dipper also saw that the ground had changed to smoother looking surface and when he moved his flashlight over it, it reflected back.

Shining his light to the side, Dipper saw a torch mounted on the wall. Pulling out some matches from his backpack, Dipper reached up and lit one against the touch, causing it to ignite into flames.

When the torch was lit, the room they were standing in had brighten up enough to see that they had entered a large circular chamber with a polished white marble floor. In the middle of it was a white tomb, also made out marble, resting on top of a small raised platform with steps.

"Wow, I've got to pay for the best crypt for when I'm dead" Pacifica said casually as she admiring the room.

Crossing the distance of the room, Dipper climbed the stairs off the platform and now stood in front of the stone coffin. As Dipper drew closer to examine it, he saw the same triple V symbol carved into the side of the stone.

"Well this must be it". Dipper took off his backpack and pulled out a long metal crowbar. He jammed one end of the crowbar under the lid of the coffin and began to press down on it.

"Wait a minute, you're actually going to open that?" Pacifica said, suddenly sounding worried.

"What better place to hide something…" Dipper grunted as he pulled down harder on the crowbar. "Then in a coffin"

"But what if this guy really was a vampire?" Pacifica exclaimed, her fear rising. "What then?"

"Don't worry, I'm prepared" Mabel said confidently. "I've got a stake if he was an evil vampire and an apple if he was a nice one". Mabel subsequently pulled out those two objects from behind her back and held them in each hand.

Dipper stopped pulling on the crowbar for a moment to catch his breath.

"There isn't any actual proof that Count Voltaruss was a vampire at all" he said, wiping some sweat from his forehead. "There's isn't anything about that in the Journal. And even if he was, we can handle it. Me and Mabel handle stuff like this all the time. I stopped that ghost for you, remember?"

"Excuse me" Pacifica said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure, I'm the one who beat that ghost when I opened the gate"

"Well, I'm the one who trapped him in a mirror" Dipper replied.

"Yeah and after that, you let him escape" Pacifica countered

"Because I found out that you and parents tricked me and-!" Dipper said, growing more agitated.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow guys" Mabel said quickly, not liking the way Dipper and Pacifica were now eyeing each other. "Starting to get a little tense in here "

"Look" Dipper continued. "Whatever's in here might be the key finding out what's really going in Gravity Falls. So are you going to help me or not? Or are you too scared to get your hands dirty?" Dipper looked up from the crowbar to give Pacifica a questioning look.

Pacifica just stared back, seeming to contemplate an answer, before shrugging her shoulders. "If I can get my parents carpet dirty, I can get anything dirty".

She walked over to join Dipper and took a hold of the crowbar alongside him. Together they pulled down as hard as they could, but still struggled to move the lid of the casket. Mabel joined them and now all three of them were pushing down with all their might. For second, it looked like their efforts were in vain, until a loud creak came from the casket as the stone lid moved ever so slightly

Dipper shifted his position and clasped both his hands around the hook of the crowbar to get a better grip as he pushed his weight down on it. The lid was raised even further as a gap could now be seen.

The three of them were knocked to the ground as their combined weight gave way underneath the crowbar. Dipper own hand's slipped from the end of the crowbar as he fell backwards

"Ouch!" Dipper winched as he felt a sharp, hot pain in the palm of his right hand. When his grip slipped from the crowbar, it had made a small cut on the inside of his hand. Shaking his hand slightly, he soon was able to ignore the slighting stinging pain as he stood back up

Mabel and Pacifica had already started to push on the stone lid, as it slowly began to slide off to the other end. The slab hit the floor with a loud bang that echoed in the cave and created a large cloud of dust that obscured everyone's vision.

"It's-it's…" Dipper said, coughing up some of the dust as he tried to peer inside the stone coffin

"Empty" Pacifica finished.

Once the dust had cleared, Dipper saw that the coffin was indeed empty. There was no body, no bones or remains of any kind. It looked so unblemished that Dipper wondered if anything had ever been inside it before.

"This…doesn't make any sense" he said. "Why would someone build a crypt and not bury anyone in it?"

Dipper continued to scan the inside of the coffin, hoping to find some shred of a clue. Then out of the corner of his eye, Dipper spotted something edged into the very back of the coffin. Reaching down into the coffin, Dipper picked the object up. Turning it over in his hands, Dipper saw that it was some kind of round disk with a lid on the front, attached to a long chain. He opened it and inside he found a clock face staring back at him, revealing the item as being an old pocket watch that had stopped running.

"That's it? All that for a broken watch" Pacifica said with disdain, shaking herhands, whichh were sore from the pulling.

"Why would someone go to all the trouble of leaving this here?" Dipper said curiously as he eyed the watch. Mabel grabbed the watch by its chain and pulled it out of Dipper's hand.

"Well, maybe they were just trying to find a way to…._ kill_ _time_!" Mabel stood there with a frozen smile, holding the watch up in the air, her eyes darting from side to side.

"This would be the part where I'd get a rimshot". Dipper took the watch back from Mabel and studied it intently.

"Hmm, the clock on this stopped running. Maybe the time its set on is part of some kind of code?" Setting the watch on the ground, Dipper instinctively took out the Journal and opened it out beside it. He then pulled out his black and started to scan the pages, trying to find some hidden message that correlated to the watch.

"Wow, you're right. This _is _so much better than extreme shopping" Pacifica said sarcastically. However Dipper gave no reply, as he had become immersed in the Journal once again.

"Hello? Are you listening to me?" Pacifica said, sounding impatient. She rolled her eyes with a groan, not like being ignored.

"Is he always this obsessive?" Pacifica asked Mabel

"I'm surprised if he even gets an hour of sleep every night" she replied. Mabel then leaned in and dropped her voice down to a whisper. "I slip some of my Mabel juice in his cereal every morning to keep him awake"

Pacifica rolled her eyes again and started to look around the room, now feeling bored. Mabel had begun to occupy herself by making shadow puppets with her light. Pacifica's eyes then fell back to the direction where they had entered, which was still lit up by the hanging torch. She then looked back at Mabel, who was now shining the light under her chin and making faces. A grin slowly formed Pacifica's face.

"Hey guys, can you give me a little more light over here?" Dipper asked absent-mindedly, as the room seemed to get darker all of a sudden, making harder for him to read the pages with just his black light.

"Guys? Guys?" Dipper only looked from his book when he heard no one answer. Getting to his feet, Dipper shone his black light out in front of him and saw that both Mabel and Pacifica were gone.

Dipper instantly felt a horrible sense of dread wash over him, his instincts and experience telling him something was terribly wrong.

"Mabel? Pacifica!?" he called out desperately. As he looked around, Dipper realised that the torch light at the entrance was out, leaving his black light the only source of light in the room. Dipper held it up higher as he moved around in a circle pattern, searching every dark corner of the room for something to pop out at him.

The black light then began to flicker on and off as Dipper continued to pace around, growing more worried each second. He shook the light slightly to try and stop it flickering, but it ended up slipping out of his hands. He scrambled to the ground and quickly tried to find it again.

When he felt the handle of the light in his grasp, he picked it up and hurriedly gave it another shake hoping that would bring the light back. Dipper let a sigh of relief when it did. He stood up again and raised his light forward. And when he did, he the very first thing he saw was a skull with glowing eyes hovering right in front of his face.

"AHHHHH!" Dipper jumped back to the ground as a bright light flashed in his face from behind the skull. Even after everything he had been through this summer, his heart would still jump into his throat whenever he saw something like that. He looked back up the skull, his mind racing to think of a way to defend himself

However, his mind seemed to take a break, when all of a sudden there was another flash of light and then came the sound of someone giggling.

"Haha got you!"

Dipper rubbed his eyes, seeing some spots after that flash, but his vision soon returned for him to see Mable was standing in front of him holding the skull up in one hand and shining her flashlight into it. Pacifica was right beside her, her camera phone out and pointed at Dipper.

Still reeling a little, Dipper slowly managed to piece together what had just happened. And now his fear was replaced by a lot of anger and humiliation.

"Got that one on picture this time" Pacifica laughed, waving her camera. On the screen of the phone was the captured picture of Dipper screaming in terror as he had done just a minute earlier.

"But it's still not as good as your other one" Mable said.

"Blahhhh!" Pacifica and Mabel stood side by side and struck their 'Dipper frozen in horror' poses again, before bursting into another round laughter.

"Okay, yeah yeah. Very funny" Dipper muttered dryly as he pushed himself back up. "It's so great to see the two of you bonding together. By humiliating me"

"Hooray! We're bonding" Mabel cheered. Dropping the skull, Mabel held her arms out and instinctively reached for Pacifica, only to pause when she realised what she was doing and then retracting her arms back, a little dejectedly.

Pacifica gave her a patronizing look, before sighing and holding her own arms out with a slight smile. Taking her consent, Mabel didn't waste time and trapped Pacifica in hug tighter than a vice. Dipper rolled his eyes in annoyance as he watched them, his pride somewhat wounded after what just happened.

"Ok, this has been a fun trip, but if it's all the same to you, I think we can go home now"

"You know, I think I'll keep this" Pacifica said, holding her phone with a mischievous grin. "Wonder how many followers this will get me online"

"We can make this into a meme!" Mabel said excitedly, grabbing the phone. "Then you'll be immortalised on the internet for all eternity!"

"What? No, no. No internet memes!" Dipper said, sounding panicked, reaching to take the phone from Mabel. However, Pacifica got to it first.

"You want it? Gotta catch me first" Pacifica laughed, as she took with a run down the cave, back to the stairway

"Immortality!" Mabel cheered as she followed suit down the passage.

"Hey! Wait up!" Dipper yelled as he chased after the two of them out of the cave.

Once they were gone, the crypt was as silent and empty as it had been before it was unearthed. The only difference now was that the lid was off the empty coffin and on the floor. Aside from that, there was no evidence that Dipper, Mabel or Pacifica had even been there at all.

However, there was in fact one other piece of evidence left, unknown to anyone. A small stain of blood that was pressed into the polished floor from where Dipper pushed himself up with his injured hand.

Another group of bats had fluttered back into the cave and flew up to the ceiling. One bat in particular flew down close to the floor and began to hover over the stain of Dipper's blood, as if it was drawn to it. The bat then lowered itself down onto the floor and crawled up to blood stain, sniffing at it slightly.

From out of nowhere, a strange and ominous wind seemed to swipe into the cave. The bats near the top of the ceiling were thrown about by this wind, while the bat that was still on the ground seemed to be unaffected. Eventually the wind died down, but things did not stop there

A bright crimson light shot up from the floor of the crypt as a series of lines slowly began to stretch out from the blood stain and formed some kind of large circular glyph with several strange markings. The markings glowed even brighter, now lighting up the previously dim cave with a red tilt. The cave itself had now begun to shake and rumble as if an earthquake had just hit.

Startled, the lone bat attempted to fly away, when suddenly the floor beneath it started to crack. Then in the blink of an eye, a chalk white hand burst up from out of the marble stone as fast a bullet, right in the center of the newly formed glyph, grabbing a hold of the bat before it could get high enough up in the air. The hand then pulled the screaming bat back down under the stone as it struggled to break free of its grip. The bat's shrieking soon stopped and was then followed by a very loud crunching sound.

More cracks formed out from the hole that had been made. Chunks of stone began to push themselves upwards as it looked like something was trying to dig its way out from underneath the floor. Then, without warning, there came a huge explosion of dirt and rock. When the dust had cleared, the figure of some creature could be seen pushing itself up out of the rumble.

The creature had the appearance of a young boy, who looked no older than Dipper or Mabel. But that one similarity was the one thing that seemed remotely human about him. Its hair was dark as coal with two long bangs in the front and a pony tail at the back. His skin was as white and dead looking as his hand. The tips of his fingers were sharp claws and his eyes were blood red, with slits for pupils. Two visible fangs out be seen jutting out from his upper lip. His clothes were black like his hair and looked like they were from a different century, with a cape was tied around his collar

The boy staggered forward slightly, panting heavily as if he had just run a marathon. He paused for a moment as if to collect himself, before throwing his head back and cracking his neck from side to side. He then straightened himself and resumed walking, all signs of fatigue now gone. The skull from earlier was laying right in front of his path. He placed his foot on top of it without any real notice and crushed it into pieces under heel.

The boy continued to walk through the cavern and then up the stairway, until he came to the entrance of the crypt, the moonlight illumining his presence. The boy raised his arms to either side, his cape flapping in the wind and he inhaled a long, deep breath of the cold night time air, as if it rejuvenated him.

He then looked upward to the sky and as if carried by some invisible wires, the boy levitated off the ground and rose higher up into the air. He came to stop once he was well off the ground and slowly spun around, to take in his surroundings. He finally stopped to cast his gaze out over the horizon and then down to the bright lights of town that were shining some distance below him.

"Gravity Falls" he whispered, his voice chilling and excited. "I'm back"

* * *

**And that's that. So what you'd think? This was supposed to part of the first chapter, but then I felt it had become too long. Hope you enjoyed it and if don't mind telling me what you thought, please review. Don't know exactly when I'll be able to update again, though if this gets a lot of support, I will be more inclined.**

**Thanks for reading and peace out**


	3. The Awkening

**Thanks to all those that reviewed before. The first two chapters were mostly the introduction. Things are gonna start moving forward with this chapter.**

* * *

About a half a mile below the Mystery Shack, Grunkle Stan was tirelessly working on the mysterious machine he had hidden down there. Sipping some more coffee from his mug, he hooked up several wirings from an open compartment. Closing it, he moved back inside the main booth and inputted several numbers into the terminals

"Come on baby" he whispered softly.

Within the main chamber, the triangular shaped machine powered up once again and formed the portal, which cackled and hummed with energy. The humming seemed to grow stronger as the portal slowly began to expand in size. But then several lights in the booth began to change rapidly and the alarm started to blare. The portal began to dissipate once again until it was completely gone.

Back in the booth, Grunkle Stan banged his fist against the desk and growled in frustration. He then hung his head down with a disappointed sigh.

"We'll get there soon. Don't worry" he assured himself. He pulled put Journal #1 and began to look over several pieces of code. He then bent down to get a pen out of the desk drawer.

"Gonna have to re-check the numbers again and-what the?"

As soon as Stan opened the drawer, a bright light had emerged from it. Taking a closer look, Stan reach his hand into the drawer to find the source of the light. Feeling his fingers around, he found something pushed down all the way to the back.

"What the heck is this?" he said as he pulled out the object. In his hand, he held up a small gold ring, which held a tiny red gem inside. The gem had some markings written on it and was glowing with a faint red colour. Stan examined it for a moment before shrugging his shoulders.

"Ah probably nothing" he said dismissively, throwing the ring back into the drawer and closing it shut.

* * *

In the middle of the Gravity Falls, night had fallen for several hours and the town almost seemed deserted as few people were out at this hour. Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland were fast asleep in their patrol car, which was parked along the sidewalk.

If the two of them had been awake, they would have noticed as a young boy, with dark hair, chalk white skin, who wrapped in a small cape, walk right past the front of their car.

The boy strolled calmly down the empty streets, the ends of his cloak lightly dragging across the pavement. No one else was around in any direction, almost as if they were drawn away by his presence. It didn't seem as though the boy was going anywhere in particular, but there was clearly something that he was searching for.

Finally, the boy stopped walking and slowly turned his head up to the side, to see that he had found himself right next to a bar that was lit up by a bright neon sign. Loud music could be heard blaring from within, along with laughter and shouts from the occupants. The boy just stare at the entrance of the bar with an impassive expression, before deciding that this was appropriate enough as more than anything else, he felt thirsty.

Pushing open the door, he entered the bar. The music inside continued to play loudly, but not nearly loud enough to drown out all the screaming that soon followed.

* * *

Inside the kitchen of the Mystery Shack, Dipper was bent over the table, a magnifying glass in one hand and a screwdriver in another. Laid out in front of him was the pocket watch they had retrieved from the tomb just yesterday. The back of it was open as Dipper examined the internal contents with the glass, occasionally tapping at something with the tip

After a few minutes of tinkering, he brought his head up away from the watch but once he did, he saw an enlarged image of Mabel's face sticking out her tongue through the glass. Dipper jumped back slightly and nearly dropped the magnifying glass, while Mabel giggled at his reaction from the other side of the table

"So what are working no now?" she asked him

"Trying to see if I can get this watch to work again" Dipper replied.

"Can't you just take it to a repair guy?" Mabel said

"It's not rocket science, it's just a watch. I'm sure I can figure it out" Dipper said as he poked at one of the gears again.

"Oh please, you think you can fix anything with a screwdriver and a pair of pillars" Mabel laughed. "Remember when you tried to fix the AC unit by yourself? Grunkle Stan had to get the jaws of life to get you out"

"I thought we promised never to speak of that again" Dipper said in a very low voice

"Yeah, in _public_" Mabel teased. Dipper was about to give another reply, when Soos entered the room in a panic

"Oh dudes, you gotta see the news!"

The three of them rushed into the living room and sat down in front of the TV. On the screen there was a picture of Topy Determined, holding a microphone and was standing outside a small bar, surrounded by paramedics

"_I'm standing here outside the Skull Fracture bar, where last night patrons of the bar came under attack by what reports are saying to be a feral little gremlin like monster. Victims of the attack were found unconscious and drained of small amounts of their blood. Each victim also had a set of two bite marks on the side of their necks. With us now is a hysterical eyewitness who was present during the event"_

_Beside Toby was a twitching man who seemed to have lost most of his hair and was biting his fingers in one hand_

"_Sir what can you tell us about what happened?"_

"_Aaaaah! It was horrible!" he screamed into the camera. " It was some kind of evil monster! It's going to kill us all! Who could possibly be responsible for bringing this unspeakable horror upon our fair town!? We're all gonna die!"_

_The crazed man pull out what was left of his hair and ran off screen. Toby watch him go, as the sound of a window breaking could be heard in the background. Toby then turned back to the camera unceremoniously_

"_And there you have it. We'll have more on this as the story develops"_

"Wow, people drained out of their blood. Sounds a lot like a vampire" Soos said, with some worry. "Good thing you dudes didn't find one in that tomb you went exploring yesterday. Oh boy, bet that'll make ya feel guilty if you, I don't know, accidentally unleashed some super evil vampire that's gonna raise an army of the undead or something. I was undead once. Wasn't that bad though, kinda like sleepwalking only ya want to eat people's brains. Anyway. Vampires. Yeah that's real bad "

The Pines twins were not listening to Soos as they had their eyes still set on the TV screen. Dipper now started to scratch himself nervously while Mabel had already a trip to Sweater Town

* * *

Upstairs in the bedroom Dipper was pacing back and forward, still scratching his neck, while Mabel sat on the bed, fidgeting with her fingers

"Ok, let's not panic" Dipper said. "Maybe this is just a coincidence. We go inside an empty underground tomb that supposedly belonged to an evil vampire and that very same night, people are being attacked by what looks like might be a vampire. That could all be a coincidence, right?"

Dipper turned to Mabel with a hopeful look that border lined on desperate. Mabel gave him a solemn look in return. "Do you really want me to lie to you Dipper?"

Dipper hung his head down in despair. "Okay maybe this is connected. But there was nothing inside the coffin we opened, so where could this vampire have come from?"

"Maybe he came out when they first found the tomb?" Mabel suggested.

"But someone would have seen it and it was found during the day time". Dipper put his hands up to his head. "Oh man this is terrible. We must have somehow resurrected Count Voltaruss"

"Uh yeah, _we_" Mabel muttered offhandedly.

"The whole town's in danger now" Dipper continued. "What are we gonna do?"

"Well we'll just have to stop that vampire ourselves" Mabel said cheerfully, jumping off the bed.

"Mabel, this a vampire we're talking about here" Dipper said seriously. "This is like, the pinnacle of all horror monsters. The worst and most terrifying creatures that prowl the night. Not the kind you see in your romantic novels. This a _real_ vampire. The kind that drinks blood, is undead and is the embodiment of pure evil"

"Pfft come on" Mabel said, waving her hand. "We've beaten gnomes, candy monsters, zombies, giant robot Gideons and triangle demons. Compared to that, some hundred year old vampire doesn't sound all that big. We can take care of it".

"…You know something?" Dipper said after a moment, his confidence beginning to rise. "You're right! We can stop this thing. After all we've been through this summer, this should be a piece of cake. We're the Mystery Twins"

"Mystery Twins!" Mabel cheered. She and Dipper raised up their hands and gave each other a solid high five.

"Okay" Dipper said, sounding like a person in charge once again. "So there is a vampire on the loose and innocent lives are in danger. And we're the only ones who can put a stop it. So we're going vampire hunting. We'll need garlic, sliver stakes, crosses and some UV lights"

"Alright" Mabel said, pumping her fist in the air. "Let's go save the town and fix this horrible mess that's completely on you! Mystery Twins away!"

"Wait, what?" Dipper said, but Mabel was already running out of the room.

"Away!"

* * *

Old Man McGucket had been minding his own business inside his hut at the junkyard. He had spent most of his evening monitoring some more weird energy readings, and in his spare time, tried to eat one of his feet. Now however, he was running as fast as his legs could carry him and screaming his lungs out, trying to make his way through a maze of scrap metal and old car parts.

He was about to turn a corner of a nearby junk pile when an engine block of a car crashed down right in front of him. He turned again and tried to go another direction but then the front bumper of a car struck the ground before he could advance any further. McGucket was forced to retreat down a narrow direction as more pieces of metal were falling down on him

At the top of a nearby pile, a lone figure was watching McGucket as he was ran for his life. The figure raised his hand and lightly flicked two of his fingers upward. Some of the wooden planks on one section of the fence began to shake violently until they each broke out from the ground and floated in the air. With another flick, the planks were propelled through the air toward McGucket's direction.

Just as McGucket was about to reach gap between two moulds of junk, a plank of wood was plunged into the ground, inches from his face. He back away a few feet when another plank planted itself right beside the first and then one another on the other side. Soon a dozen more planks rained down from above and formed a circular wall of wooden boards, trapping McGucket. With nowhere to go, he pushed his back against the fence, sliding back to the ground and trembling in terror at the figure approaching from the shadows.

"It-it's you!" he said, pointing his finger. "But it can't be!"

"It can" calmly replied the figure. "And it is".

The figure moved closer and his body was now illuminated by the street light. The chalk skinned boy smiled with what might have been nostalgia as he look over McGucket.

"You've gotten old since the last time I saw you" he said. "The years have been a bit kinder to me, but then again you don't age much when you're a vampire. Or when your whole body is compressed underneath a ton of solid rock"

As the boy was talking, McGucket was attempting to edge his way around the fence. The boy gave a casual flick of his wrist. Almost immediately, piece of sharp metal pierced the ground beside McGucket, forcing him back.

"Uh-uh-uh " the boy said, waving his index finger. "Let's not cut our reunion too short."

Moving forward in less than an instant, the boy grabbed McGucket by his beard and pulled him up to his face.

"Now tell me" he said. "Where is the Author?"

"I-I-I don't know where he is, I swear!" McGucket pleaded.

"Oh please, are we really going to play this game?" the boy said, rolling his eyes. "I ask you something, you say you don't know, I threaten you, blah, blah, blah. If it's all the same to you, let's speed this up"

In a sudden flash of light, boy's slit like eyes began to glow a bright red colour, with his pupils remaining visibly dark. Caught in his gaze, McGucket's own eyes also started to glow with the same colour and the rest of his body seemed to limp at the same time.

"Mmm. I see" the boy said, his eyes still locked into McGucket's. "You're memories were tampered with by the Society of the Blind Eye. You don't remember anything about the Author. But….you do know where one of his Journals is. Now tell me where"

"N-no, I-I can't!" McGucket shook his head and closed his eyes shut.

"You couldn't resist me thirty years ago, you can't resist me now McGucket" the boy said calmly. The red tilt in his eyes became even brighter and McGucket soon ceased his helpless struggling as he stare into the light.

"Who has the Journal?" the boy asked aloud. McGucket didn't give any answer, but the boy seemed like he was already getting what he needed

"Pines?" he said finally, the glow in his eyes disappearing. "Dipper…Pines? Well, how serendipitous!" The boy dropped McGucket back down to the ground. The trance he had been put under seemed to have worn off as he quickly came back to himself.

"Looks like I might see my old friend this evening after all. And now there is only other thing you have left to offer me" the boy said darkly.

A dark wind suddenly surrounded the boy, his cape slowly rising up into the air as he eyed McGucket maliciously. He slowly marched over to McGucket, who threw his hands over his head in absolute fear. The boy was now mere inches from him, his lips curled up to reveal his fangs, his hands rising up dramatically until…

"Do you have the time?" he asked, his demeanour calmly down instantly

"The….time?" McGucket repeated slowly, lowering his hands.

"Yeah, I seem to have misplaced my watch, so do you know where I can a new one?" the boy asked with a casual shrug. "There's actually this new thing I heard about last night called an iPhone, that's like a phone with a clock on it? You know where I can get one?"

"Uh yeah, just try Jerry's shop on 5th street" McGucket replied gingerly

"Okay, thanks" the boy said with a pleasant smile. He then pushed himself on his heels and literally flew upwards into the air, vanishing into the night again. McGucket stared up at the sky and let out a huge sigh of relief once he was gone, falling back against the fence again. However only a second later, the boy landed right back in the exact same spot from where he just left.

"Oh I forgot, there's one more thing I need" he said. With the speed and reaction time of a viscous predator, the boy lunged at McGucket with a snarl and sunk his fangs deep into his neck. He held McGucket in place with what could only be inhuman levels of strength, not that it matter, since McGucket seemed to have become frozen in shock the second his neck was pierced

The vampire finally released McGucket, who fell straight back to the ground. He then wiped the side of his mouth with his two fingers and let out a small burp.

"You know, I would have come after you last night, but I've kinda been binging myself a little since I woke up" he said, sucking the tips of his fingers. "Who would have thought being imprisoned inside a tomb for thirty years would make you so hungry? But now I'm worried I may be losing my figure. Look at me from the side, do I look different to you? Be honest"

The vampire held his hand by his waist, waiting for McGucket to give him a reply. McGucket however, could give no response back, as he just lay on the ground, still twitching.

"What's that?" the boy said, putting his hand to his ear somewhat coyly. "Oh right sorry. I forgot, you're dying. Easy for someone in my position to forget that from time to time. But when you're a vampire you tend to let things like mortality slip away from you"

Turning his back on McGucket, the young boy took off into the sky again, his body as straight as if he was standing on his feet. He folded his hands behind his back and slowly began to move through the air.

"Now, let's take a trip down memory lane"

* * *

**Don't worry McGucket's not really dead. I don't want to make things that dark just yet**

**Also for those wondering about the portal at the start, remember I said this was before the events of Not What He Seems, so I just held back the progress Stan made, but that doesn't mean the portal won't show up later**

**So hope you enjoyed the chapter, next one should be soon enough hopefully. So please a review and peace out.**


	4. Dipper and Mabel vs Vincent, part 1

"Okay, so I've packed everything we might need in these anti-vampire packs" Dipper said, as he and Mabel made their way into town, both of them carrying a black travel pack around their waists. . "Garlic, sliver stakes, UV lights. And a walkie-talkie so we can talk to each other in case of emergency"

"Breaker, breaker" Mabel spoke into her walkie-talkie with a trucker style accent. "This is Shooting Star here. What's your ten-four Pine Tree? Over"

"Alright, let's get moving" Dipper said. "We'll start our search at the Skull Fracture and move from there. By the way, you wouldn't happen to have Pacifica's number, would you?" he added, giving Mabel a quick glance.

"Her number?" Mabel repeated, taken off guard by Dipper's request.

"Well, yeah, her phone number. I wanted to call her and warn her about this vampire thing, but I don't have it. I should probably ask for it if she comes around again"

"So wait a second" Mabel said with a grin. "You_ want_ to get Pacifica's phone number?"

"What?" Dipper said, confused. Then his face turned to horror when he realised what she might. "Oh no! No way! It's not like that. Come on, that's Pacifica we're talking about. Yikes. I just want to make sure she doesn't hurt…or anything"

"Gee, first you start with Wendy, now you're moving on to Pacifica. Who's next, Candy?" Mabel nudged him with her elbow, grinning impishly

"Look, I just wanted to check on her, because she was in the crypt with us" Dipper explained. "I'm only thinking that she might be involved in this as well. I am not interested in her in….that way"

"Honk, honk!" Mabel said loudly. "The ship is sailing! All aboard the SS Dipifca!"

* * *

At the Mystery Shack, the shop had closed just a few hours ago, since tourists don't usually come around after dark. The only person who could be seen in the building was Soos, who was whistling happily as he swept the floor. There then came a single knock on the front door. Soos stopped his sweeping and walked over to the door, seeing no one through the glass. He then looked downwards and saw a young boy standing in front of the door.

"Sorry dude, shop's closed" he said. Soos turned his back on the door and walked away.

"I'm not a customer" a voice called from behind.

Soos turned around again and saw that the kid who was just standing outside the door a minute ago, was now standing on the opposite side of the door, in the room, even though the door was still closed and no sound of it opening or closing had been made.

"Whoa, how'd you do that dude?" Soos asked in amazement. "Do have, some like phase shifter thing that's lets you move through solid walls? Oh man I would love that. We'd could finally do away with things like door handles. I wouldn't even need to open a fridge anymore. Just put my hand right through."

The kid didn't seem to be listening to Soos as he was looking around the shop with the same nostalgic look he have given McGucket. His eyes then settled on the vending machine for a moment.

"Hmm. Been awhile since my last visit" he said

"You come here often dude?" Soos asked

"Once, but I've out of town for a while" he said as he started to browse some the shop items. He picked up a key chain from the shelf, one that had a skull at the end of it.

"I'm looking for someone named Dipper Pines" he said, rolling the skull head in-between his fingers.

"Oh, he's not here right now, dude" Soos replied. "He's out hunting that vampire that's been attacking everyone"

"Really?" the kid said with some interest. "Well, that does sound dangerous now doesn't it?"

"Oh yeah, but not for Dipper. He's like an expert around here on monsters and evil mysteries. I've seen him take on all kinds of crazy stuff and make it out alive. That vampire is probably gonna be in for it by now"

The kid stared blankly at Soos, before crushing the plastic skull head between his fingers.

"Mmm, well, thank you for your time. Guess I'll leave, but I have a feeling I'll be back here soon enough". The kid made his way to the door, but paused briefly when Soos called him back.

"Oh wait a second dude. Are you gonna like do another cool vanishing trick if I turn around again? Is that a rule, that I can't like see how you're gonna disappear cause you have to do like off screen or something? I mean I turn around and- "

Soos turned around once in a circle, but once he came back around, the kid was gone again.

"Oh so that _is_ the rule" he said in understanding.

* * *

"Vampire? You calling me a vampire? I'll have you know, that I'm a biker punk-semi-goth-rock genre enthusiast. Don't stereotype me"

As they began their search for people with any knowledge of the vampire attacks, Dipper and Mabel came across Robbie and Tambry. Robbie, looking as sour as usual. Tambry on his arm, looking as disinterested as usual

"No, I mean have you heard anything about a real vampire" Dipper said, rubbing his eyes. "The one that's been on the news attacking people"

"Oh. Well no I haven't" Robbie said. "I saw some vampires-skaters-ravers-teenyboppers down by Person's Street. Do those count?"

"Uh, no not really" Dipper replied. Robbie turned over to Tambry.

"Hey Tambry, you hear anything about vampires?" he asked her, although Tambry still seemed to be focused on her phone. Dipper rolled his eyes a little condescending at the exchange

"For some reason, I don't think there'll be a vampire status update-"

"Hey, check this out" Tambry said unceremoniously. "Somebody's running a tweet, saying that a vampire is down by the arcade. Also says Jason Gopher got engaged to Molly Gyrus. Bet that'll work out"

Dipper closed his mouth and shared a bemused glance with Mabel who just shrugged

* * *

Dipper and Mabel now found themselves outside the arcade, which appeared dessert. The lights were off inside, but it looked like some of the games were still on. Of course from where they were standing, they couldn't tell if anybody was inside or not.

Deciding the front door wouldn't be the best option, the twins moved around the back and found an exit door, which happened to be open.

"Okay, I'll go in first" Dipper said to Mabel. "You stay here in case the vampire tries to escape. I'll call you on the walkie-talkie in case I need some help. We any luck we might be able to trap him until sunrise"

"Check" Mabel said with a salute

"Also, it's mentioned in the Journal that some vampires have been known to possess hypnotic powers. Even mind reading, so you can't look them directly in the eye unless you wear some form of protection, which is why I brought these"

Dipper pulled out two pairs of sunglasses, handing one to Mabel and keeping the other for himself.

"These sunglasses should keep us safe from any optical based powers. Except, probably laser vision".

"Check" Mabel said, putting her sunglasses with a cool pose.

"It' also said vampires at times, can control small animals to do their bidding, like bats or snakes, so keep your eye out for suspicious looking animals too"

"Check" Mabel said once again. With a quick nod, Dipper entered through the door, while Mabel stood guard right beside the door. Hearing a small hooting sound, she glanced upwards and saw an owl perched on a tree, staring down at her. Lowering her sunglasses down, Mabel pointed her two fingers at her eyes and then to owl threateningly.

"I'm watching you, Mr Owl"

* * *

Entering from the back, Dipper found himself walking through the main arcade room.

"Hello!" he called out. "Anybody here? Hello!" The only sound in return was a loud echo. The room was eerily silence and just as they saw from the outside, the only lights illuminating the room were the games, but this only seemed to further the ominous nature of the room

"Hello" said a voice from out of nowhere.

Dipper jumped with a small fright at the voice. He briefly looked around the room for the source, but then realised it came from right next to him. A dark haired kid with a ponytail, was leaning up against one of the arcade machines, partially obscured by the shadow. In his hand was a cell phone, that he was typing away at, not unlike Tambry.

"Oh hey there" Dipper said calmly, when he realised there was no danger "Who are you?"

"Just a kid looking to play some games" he replied.

"Well, you probably should get out of here" Dipper warned. "It's not safe. There's a vampire on the loose"

"Really?" the kid replied vaguely, still typing on the phone.

"Yeah, so you better get to safety" Dipper said with a commanding tone, as he marched forward.

"Hold on, just me post something". The kid walked out from behind the machine, looking down at his phone. "Tell me how does this sound? 'Some kid's about to kill me. Gonna eat his face off. Wonder how loud he can scream? LOL'"

Dipper paused in his march and for a few seconds, stood frozen like a statue. He slowly turned around and looked over the pale skinned kid in the full view this time.

"You're the vampire, aren't you?" he said with a straight face.

"Well, I don't just wear this cape to just make a fashion statement" the kid replied.

"Wait a minute" Dipper said, looking up and down the kid again. "You're Vladimir Voltaruss III?"

"Oh no" the kid said, shaking his head. "That's my grandfather. I'm Vladimir Voltaruss V, but friends call me Vincent or just Vinny. Whichever you prefer. I never liked the name Vlad"

"Oh well uh….Vincent" Dipper soon began to regain his composure. "My name is Dipper Pines and I'm here to stop your evil reign of terror over Gravity Falls, you foul creature of darkness!"

Dipper spoke with a dramatic flair and pointed his finger at Vincent, who didn't make any movement in return.

"Wow" he said, grinning with some amusement. "Did you write that down before you came here?"

"Uh, no" Dipper said quickly, avoiding Vincent's eye. "So, uh, why are you here?"

"You mean at this arcade? No reason, thought this would be a good place as any to talk, so I just decided to lure you here"

"You lured me? You started that tweet?" Dipper said with surprise.

"Oh yeah. See I got this new phone". He held up the phone that he was using just a minute ago. "Really nice too. And I just discovered this social networking thing you humans got going on. Man, it is really convenient. I mean it's a slow and depressing detachment from physical reality, but man is it convenient."

Vincent held his phone up with some regard for a moment, before putting it inside his pocket. "Anyway, I'm told that you have something that I need"

Uh, if youu mean my blood, I got to warn you, I ingest a lot of glucose into my diet" Dipper said.

"No, not your blood" Vincent said, folding his hands behind his back. "I'm referring to a certain book you have, written by a very specific Author, that I want very much"

"Sorry, no idea wha-". Dipper made a move to turn around, but once he did, Vincent was already right behind him.

"Are we really gonna go through the motions here?" he said in a dull voice, lifting his hands up. "You know what I want, I know you have it, and I'm going to take it from you one way or the other. So how do you want to do this dance? Beg for mercy? Climatic showdown? Or should I just read your mind?"

"Ha-ha!" Dipper suddenly yelled triumphantly, pointing his finger at Vincent. "So you _can_ read minds. Well, unfortunately for you, I came prepared!"

Reaching into his pack, Dipper pulled out the sunglasses he brought and put them over his eyes, crossing his arms with confidence.

"So what are you going do now?"

Vincent merely raised an eyebrow at Dipper. Then he disappeared from Dipper's line of sight in a literal blur of movement, creating a small cloud of dust in his wake. He reappeared from behind, on Dipper's left side and tapped his shoulder. Dipper instinctively turned his head to the left, just as Vincent disappeared again, and was now on his right side. He swiftly plucked the sunglasses off Dipper's face and disappeared once again as Dipper turned his head back around

Dipper, then looked forward to see Vincent standing in back front of him and twirling the sunglasses in his fingers, looking rather bored. Dipper slowly patted his face, beginning to realise what this meant.

"Oh" he said with simply acceptance. "Well, there we go then"

"You know I could do this the quick way" Vincent said, looking over the sunglasses. "But this is only my second night on the town and you do seem mildly entertaining. So about I give you a sporting chance. No mind reading"

Vincent then placed the sunglasses over his face, with a confident grin. He then gestured to Dipper as if allowing him to make his next move.

"Okay, well, let's see you stand up to this!" Dipper said. He reached into his pack again and pulled out a single lump of garlic. Vincent folded his arms and just leaned his head back.

"Oh no. Garlic" he said in a monotone. "No one has ever tried one before". Vincent raised his right hand up and started to examine his nails, before he swiftly knocked the garlic out of Dipper's hand with the back of his own.

"Okay, then how about…this!" Dipper reached into the pack once again, and pulled out a small sliver stake.

"Sliver stake" Vincent said, waving his hand to his mouth, "Yawn"

Lifting his leg back, Vincent raised his foot up, kicking the stake out of Dipper's and up into the air until it penetrated the ceiling up above.

"Is that the best you can do?" Vincent said, sounding more and more bored

"Well then, maybe it's time I shed some light on the situation!" This time, Dipper pulled out a small, oddly sized flashlight and pointed it at Vincent like a gun. He flicked the switch, and prepared for the UV light to hit Vincent. However, no light came out of it. Dipper flicked the switch again, but still nothing happened.

Vincent could only stare at Dipper as he repeatedly flicked the switch back and forward, shaking the light around. After a few seconds, Dipper opened the lid on the side and realised, much to his discontent, that there were no batteries

Vincent continued to stare at Dipper with a blank face, but slowly his lower lip began to shake, until he finally burst out into uncontrollable laughing. It didn't sound like as though it was meant to be mockery, but more as if he was genuinely amused.

"Shed… ha-ha…. .some light. .on the. ha-haa!" he chortled, holding onto his sides. "Oh my God. You did _not_ just say that!"

Dipper could do nothing but listen to Vincent's laughter, as his cheeks began to burn red with embarrassment. Finally Vincent calmed down, collecting his breath and wiping a tear from his eye.

"You done?" he asked, composing himself again. "Well, I guess it's my turn".

Dipper suddenly felt a strange pulling sensation on his waistline. He glanced down and saw that the pack he had been carrying was now emitting a bright red glow. Vincent raised his hand up and flicked his wrist backwards. After he did, the pack was then pulled away from like it was by his own hand. It hovered in the air above a shocked Dipper, before it was flung to the other end of the room.

"I said no mind reading. Didn't say no telekinesis" Vincent said, as he already began to rise up into the air.

One of the arcade machines near Dipper began to glow bright red just like his pack. The machine slowly crept its way out from its position and turned to face Dipper.

Dipper ran down the hall of cabinets as the one behind him was starting to gain. A few feet up ahead was a sharp corner. Moving quickly, Dipper managed to dive into the corner, the cabinet speeding past him.

Once he stood back up, Dipper found himself right next to a prize grabber machine. For a second he felt safe again, but that second soon pasted when he heard a rustling noise from inside the prize grabber.

Dipper looked up and could see the claw inside the machine started to move by itself as if had come to life on its own, as it opened up and rose like a snake. The head of the claw burst through the glass container, snapping in the air and pointed itself directly at Dipper.

The claw lunged at Dipper who narrowly dodge its grip as it hit the floor. But the claw pulled back up and struck again at Dipper's head, but he managed to duck in time. Dipper took off in another run as the claw began to chase after him. Nearby Vincent was floating in the air and holding his right hand out in concentration.

"Easy, these things are always rigged"

Dipper continued to run as fast as he could duck in and around several more machines, the claw still pursuing him. Reaching into his back pocket, he quickly pulled out the walkie-talkie.

"Mabel!" he yelled as he ran. "I need help backup right now! Mabel!?" But there was no reply on the other end. All that could be heard was static.

* * *

Back outside, Mabel's walkie-talkie was laying on the ground, as a steady stream of static was coming out of it.

Mabel herself was sitting on the ground across from the owl she met earlier. Scribbled in the dirt between them was a game of tic-tac-toe. For some reason, Mabel was also missing her sweater, shoes, socks, sunglasses and the anti-vampire pack Dipper had given her, all which were all the owl's side of the game board.

"Ok, Mr Owl" Mabel said, determined. "Best six out of eleven"

* * *

Still running, Dipper frantically tried to find his way out from the maze of cabinets, the claw grabber hot on his tail. Seeing a gap between two machines, he squeezed through, but once he did, he found himself at a dead end. Dipper pressed his back up against the wall as the claw came speeding toward him. He closed his eyes tightly, bracing himself for it to hit. But nothing happened.

Dipper opened one eye but didn't move from where he was. The claw was floating inches from his face, but it seemed to be stuck in midair as it was snapping away, yet unable to reach him. Behind it, the cord connecting it to the prize machine was strung completely tight, being pulled out at full length.

Vincent noticed this as well. Furrowing his brow with some annoyance, he increased his pull on the claw as the rest of the machine slowly started to drag across the floor. Eventually, the prize grabber titled itself, falling down on its side with a crash, with several toys pouring out. After it fell, the wire connecting it to the claw, became trapped underneath.

Wasting no time, Dipper ran underneath the claw, crossing the distance of the room to the over turned prize grabber and clambered up on top of it. Glancing around, he spotted the exit in the distance. He then jumped over to the top of the nearest arcade machine and started to run along the rows of cabinets in a makeshift path.

However, without warning, the cabinet underneath him suddenly jumped upward like a spring, sending Dipper up into the air. He landed back down on top of another cabinet, but before he could stand up again, that cabinet sprung itself up as well. Dipper flown halfway across the room, before landing and being tossed up again, bouncing around the room like a hackey sack.

Vincent was floating above, looking somewhat excited as was pressing some invisible buttons in the air with his two thumbs.

"I'm so gonna beat my high score"

Feeling dizzy as he was flopped down onto another cabinet, Dipper shakily managed to stand up on his feet again. But then the cabinet jumped up again, only this time with much more force, which sent Dipper straight up to the ceiling.

Just as he started to descend again, Dipper quickly grabbed a hold of one fluorescent light with his hands and held on tight to it with all his strength. He looked down to the floor, which was maybe ten feet below him. Vincent levitated up right next to Dipper as he continued dangle from the ceiling.

"We having fun yet?" he asked, resting his arms behind his head. "I know I am. But if you it to end, all you have to do is give me that Journal"

"What do you even want the Journal for anyway!?" Dipper said, trying to pull himself up on top of the light.

"Don't play dumb with me. I know the Author gave you that Journal and I know what's in it". Vincent started to move away from Dipper as he continued to speak. "He thought he could keep me locked away forever, but now I'm free again and I'm here for what's mine"

While Vincent was talking, Dipper managed to pull him on top of the light. He then looked up and spotted one of the two wires attaching the light to the ceiling. He glanced back to Vincent who was still turned away. Getting an idea, Dipper moved to one side of the light, lay down on his back and pressed his feet onto the ceiling.

"Of course I'm still not sure why he would give it to you" Vincent said, with his back still to Dipper. "I heard you were some kind of expert mystery buster, but I'm not impressed"

Dipper decided to keep him talking just as the wire was starting to give under the extra pressure from his legs.

"Uh hang on a second" he said, feigning fear. "The Author didn't give me the Journal. I found it myself. In the woods, the first day I came to this town"

"Oh sure. You just found it by complete accident. Sorry but I'm starting to get bored with our game. So let's finish thi-"

With as much strain as he could muster, Dipper kicked his feet off the ceiling, which snapped the rest of the wire, causing the light fall down to one side just as Vincent turned around. The bottom end of the light hit Vincent in the head as it came down like a pendulum, knocking off his sunglasses and momentarily sending him spinning through the air. Still holding on to the sides of the light, Dipper swung along with it through the air, and jumped down to the ground, landing on top of an arcade machine. Keeping up his momentum, Dipper ran across the tops of game cabinets, heading right for the exit once again.

Vincent shook his head with a small grunt, briefly caught off guard. He soon recomposed himself when he saw that Dipper was almost at the exit. Vincent then clapped his two hands together. Two more arcade machines, slid across the floor and blocked the door just before Dipper could reach it. He slid to a halt just in front of the machines. He turned around as Vincent lowered himself back down.

"Okay, I'll admit, I didn't see that coming" he said, sounding a bit irked. "But if you want to keep playing, I'm fine with that too"

Raising his hands again, Vincent pulled them into his chest. On his left side, a set of air hockey tables began to shake violently. From inside the tables, several pucks were pulled out and floated up in the air

Conversely, the right side of Vincent, several skee balls from another set of game rose up into the air as well. The balls and pucks now converged together, right above Vincent's head. With another hand gesture, he fired a number of them at Dipper.

Taking off into another run, Dipper ducked his head down as the pucks and balls rained down from above. In almost a blind panic, Dipper jumped between another set of cabinets, leaving Vincent's line of sight for just a second.

Dropping to the floor, Dipper crawled in behind a row of games that were close to the wall, hoping that the shadows could keep his hidden.

Panting heavily, Dipper pressed his head against one of the machines, keeping low to the ground. He peered out behind a gap, and could see Vincent hovering overhead searching for him. Dipper gulped a little, knowing he was trapped and without his anti-vampire pack he was defenseless.

Knowing he had to keep moving, Dipper quietly stood up again and took one step forward, but tripped one of the numerous plugs behind the machines. Picking one of them up, Dipper was struck by another idea. He started pulling out as many plugs from the wall as he could and being careful to place each one under his arm.

Once he had enough, Dipper tied two of the plugs together into a quick knot. He then grabbed another plug and tied it on as well. Working as fast as his hands out weave, he tangled almost every plug together in a huge net.

"You know hide and seek is my favorite game" Vincent called out. "Of course, nobody ever liked it when I was it"

"Why, because you sucked at it?"

Vincent turned around and saw Dipper standing on the other side of the room, without a trace of fear. Smiling to himself. Vincent fired another set of pucks and balls at Dipper, who just barely managed to dodge them.

"Hey Vincent! That the best you can do?" Dipper stood up again. "Why don't you throw something bigger, since you have such bad aim?"

"Oh, that's cute" Vincent sneered. "Wanted to spare you some pain, but I only need you to talk. Some broken bones won't be a problem"

Vincent waved his hand forward to summon the nearest arcade machine from the row directly behind him. One of the cabinets, pulled itself out from the row, but only moved a few inches across the floor. Vincent turned back at it with some confusion. He waved his hand once again, and the cabinet came another few inches closer, but then stopped again.

"What's the matter?" Dipper taunted. "That one game a little too heavy for you? Some telekinetic you are!"

Scowling with anger, Vincent clenched his hand into a fist and as he did this, the sides of the cabinet seemed to be crushed by an invisible pressure. He threw his fist at Dipper. This time the cabinet was thrown right off the ground, being propelled right past Vincent and straight for Dipper.

But it wasn't alone. All the games that were behind it were pulled along as well with just as much force, all of them connected by the net of plugs and wires Dipper had tied up. Vincent only realised what was about to happen when he saw wire of the first game zip right past him. He turned around and to see the wall of arcade games coming toward him with a stunned expression, but he couldn't react in time as he was soon dragged right underneath the massive pile.

Dipper immediately rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the collision as it all crashed against the wall. Standing up again, Dipper stared at the pile of broken machines, an occasional spark firing out. Not wanting to test his luck, Dipper knew that this was the best time to leave.

Panting with exhaustion, Dipper slowly made his way to the exit at the back. Once he was outside, Dipper pressed himself up to the wall and slowly slide down to the ground. Just as he let a weary sigh, Mabel appeared next to him and for some reason she was covered in feathers

"You would not believe what I've had to put up with tonight" she said bitterly

* * *

Back in the arcade, a slight rummaging sound could be heard from the pile of game cabinets, the one sitting right on the top was suddenly thrown across the room. Vincent stood from the heap of metal and wiring, looking furious.

"Alright Pines! If you think you can just-". Vincent stopped when he took one look around the destroyed room to see that Dipper was gone.

"You can run, but you can't hide. Not when I know where you live"

Vincent raised his right arm up and pointed toward the door as he spoke, but then he noticed something wasn't quite right. Looking down, he saw that his right forearm was completely limp and dangling below his elbow. Taking a hold of his arm, Vincent twisted it to the side, snapping the broken bones back to into place as if he had done it a dozen times before and briefly flexed the arm to ensure it was fully functioning.

Vincent climbed out of the pile of arcade machines and exited the building, searching for the direction Dipper had gone off in. But before he could go any further, a beeping sound came from his pocket. He pulled out his new phone and saw that the timer he had set earlier was now going off, indicating that the night was almost over and the sun would soon be up.

With a small growl, he realised that he would have to wait until night fall again before he could go after the Journal. Taking up to the skies, he flew back to his grandfather's crypt to wait out the day.


	5. Dipper and Mabel vs Vincent, part 2

Dipper had said nothing as he and Mabel made the long trek back home. It was already morning and since he hadn't gotten any sleep the entire night, Dipper headed straight for the bedroom. He pushed the door open and entered wearing a very gaunt face. Mabel, however, cheerfully followed from behind, unperturbed by Dipper's demeanour and excitedly telling him about her adventure with that owl she met outside the arcade.

"….And then after Mr Owl and I rescued the old lady across the street, we finished our game and I won back all my stuff. Pretty cool story, huh?"

As soon as he was close enough, Dipper flopped down face first onto his bed, looking as stiff as a plank of wood. After a short moment, Dipper rolled his head to the side, to look at Mabel with an unamused expression.

"You were playing a game…" he said, as if straining with each syllable. "Of tic-tac-toe…. with an owl….while I was fighting for my life….against an evil vampire."

"Yeah, I guess we both had a crazy night, huh?" Mabel replied with a laugh.

"How can you even possibly lose at tic-tac-toe?" Dipper said, managing to push himself up. "Let alone to an owl!?"

"Apparently owls secretly have superior cognitive powers than that of a human" Mabel said, with a straight face. "Learn something new every day right"

"Mabel, I tried to call you on the walkie-talkie" Dipper said, rubbing his eyes. "I needed you to help me in the arcade"

"The owl won my walkie-talkie off me in the third round" she said. "Besides who's the guy who made up the full proof, anti-vampire pack? Didn't that help you?"

"Well, apparently this vampire isn't impressed by the classic stuff" Dipper said. "I would have gotten him with my UV light, but the batteries in it were gone"

Mabel suddenly went very still, her smile gone and her eyes directly focused on the ceiling. Dipper stared at her for a long moment, before he calmly came to a realization.

"You took the batteries out of my UV flashlight didn't you?" Mabel shifted her feet awkwardly, not meeting Dipper's gaze.

"I needed them for my Glow-In-The-Dark-Novelty whistle" she answered with a guilty whisper, holding up a long whistle covered in bright lights. She quietly blew into it, which produced a happy electronic jingle. Dipper stared blankly at Mabel, before he slapped his hand to his forehead and very slowly dragged it down over his face with a weary groan.

"Why do I even try with you?" he said, shaking his head. "I think that when we were born, I must have gotten the left half of the our brain and you got the right half"

"Guess that's why I'm always leaning to one side all the time! Whoa!" Mabel started to wobble around comically, hopping on one foot, her arms flailing wildly and her head tilted down to her right side as she there was too much weight there. Dipper groaned again as he rolled his eyes, being further reminded of the futility of what he was saying.

"Hey, come on, " Mabel said when she saw that Dipper still looked very sullen. "That was funny right?"

Mabel's smile started to fade as she realised that Dipper was in a mood that wasn't going to be cured by a couple of jokes.

"Hey look, I'm sorry ok?" she said, with a bit more concern. "But it can't have been that bad can it? It was just some old vampire guy"

"It wasn't actually Count Voltaruss himself" Dipper said, resting his chin on his hand. "It was his grandson. He's this kid named Vincent and he looks like he's the same age as us"

"Really?" Mabel said, her interest perking up again. "Was he cute?"

"Yes, Mabel he was absolutely dreamy" Dipper said, deadpanned. "And totally psychotic. So I guess he'd be a perfect match for you, considering your track record"

"Hey, I had only had a thing for one psychotic guy" Mabel said defensively. "And the one who thought his hands were really puppets. And I guess you could count the gnomes too"

"Well, who knows, maybe this guy will be one for you" Dipper said sarcastically. "After all, you don't seem to mind the fact he nearly killed me"

"Yeah, like that's never happened once this summer" Mabel said coolly. "You seem to be making a reallllly big deal about this"

"Of course I'm making a big deal about this!" Dipper exclaimed, his rage building again. "I was in trouble and needed you to help me! You know what I would really like? For you to actually back me up for once, right away, no questions asked, when I need it the most but instead you leave me hanging"

"Okay, okay" Mabel said, holding up her hands and sounding more abashed. "Maybe I _was_ being a bit careless about it, but it all worked out fine in the-"

"I don't want to hear any excuses!" Dipper suddenly snapped at her, jumping off the bed. "What if something else had gone wrong? What if someone had gotten hurt? I thought we were supposed to be a team on this"

"Yeah, well, even if we're a team, that doesn't mean you can just boss me around all the time" Mabel said, standing her ground.

"Well, somebody has to be in charge and it can't very well be you" Dipper replied.

"Oh yeah, like the time I was in charge of the Mystery Shack?" Mabel shot back. "Remember that, huh?"

"I remember you letting everything fall apart and then making exactly one dollar" Dipper said.

"Yeah, and I remember helping you try and score a date with Wendy with all summer!" Mabel said, now getting angry herself.

"Yeah by locking me and her in a room with a shapeshifting monster" Dipper said sardonically. "Never thanked you for that by the way"

"Well, that wouldn't have even happened if you hadn't gone out to find that bunker!" Mabel yelled at Dipper, poking her finger into his chest. "Just like how you wanted to go into that stupid vampire's crypt! And you're the one who wanted to open that coffin. You're always the one who wants to poke his nose into every evil and creepy thing that we find in this town. So if you want to complain about getting eaten by a vampire, then it's your own fault!"

Mabel crossed her arms and turned away from Dipper with a huff. Dipper stared at her turned back, with a bit of little indignation at her words, but he soon regained his composure again.

"Well, at least I'm the one who's always trying to fix this stuff when it happens and you're the one who's supposed to be helping me. That's kinda what sidekicks do" he added offhandedly

Mabel's eyes shot open and her face was briefly frozen in shock, and then turned to pure rage as she rounded on Dipper again.

"Sidekick!?" she yelled at him. "You're calling me _your _sidekick!?

"Yeah. If this was a comic book, I'd be the hero and you'd be my comedic sidekick" Dipper said, a little indifferent. "Or a quirky receptionist who runs my headquarters"

Mabel's shoulders started to shake with anger, as her face was turning bright red.

"You know what?" she yelled. "Fine! If you don't want me dragging you down all the time, then I'm not going to help you anymore!". Mabel turned on her heel and walked out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Dipper remained where he was, momentarily stunned by what had transpired, before collecting himself again

"You know what" he said aloud. "I don't need help. I can do this on my own just like I did last night. I'm going to go out and slay that vampire"

After a short pause, Dipper glanced at the nearby clock and was reminded that it was still just early morning, which in turn reminded him of his severe exhausted.

"Sleep first" he concluded wearily, slumping his shoulders and falling back to the bed.

* * *

Several hours later, it was night time again. Mabel was sitting in the kitchen, huddled over an open notebook on the table, looking just anger as she had been when she left Dipper. She hadn't seen or spoken to him since their fight, but she guessed that he wasn't around anymore, not that's she cared at the moment of course.

Mabel had decided to try and forget about her anger at Dipper by adding some more stickers to her notebook. But it didn't look as though it was working, as she was slapping stickers into the notebook with a great deal of excessive force, grunting loudly with each impact. As Mabel continued to pound stickers into the notebook, Stan walked into the kitchen, holding a jar filled with coins under his arm.

"Hey Mabel" he greeted as he took a seat next to her. After he did, Stan noticed how violently the table was being rocked by each one of Mabel's slaps. "Geez, what's with all the stickers?"

"Stickers...*grunt*...make… *grunt*… everything... *grunt*… better!" she growled, slamming a stickers onto the table with each word. When she had finished, Mabel sank back into her seat for a moment to take a breath, before glancing at the apprehensive Stan

"What's that?" she asked, sounding a little calmer, indicating at his jar.

"It's my collection of old silver coins that I've accumulated over the years" Stan replied, setting the jar on the table. "But I don't use them. They're all worthless! Look at 'em". Stan started picking out several coins. "None of them have any presidents on 'em. This one's got like the Queen of English on it or something. And this one's got a buffalo. This really old one here I got in Spain. It's not even in English. Worthless". Stan threw the coin back into the jar with disgust. He then took a brief glance around the kitchen

"So what's Dipper up to?" he asked.

"His names not Dipper anymore" Mabel said angrily, crossing her arms in a pout. "From now on, his name will be Butt Face"

"That a legal name change?" Stan joked. He then looked at Mabel a bit more seriously and could see something else was wrong. "Hey, what's up?"

Mabel lowered head and looked away from Stan. Then she answered in annoyed mumble. "Me and Dipper had a fight ok?"

"Got into a fight with your brother huh?" Stan said. "Yeah, that tends to happen with siblings"

Stan picked up another couple of silver coins, looking them over with a solemn gaze. "Still, it's kinda surprising. I mean, you and your brother are always together. You're like a tongue and a frozen metal pole in the middle of winter. You're stuck to one another, till a doctor comes and surgically removes you. So what was the fight about?"

"He got really mad and yelled at me" Mabel said grumpily.

"So what'd he yell at you for?" Stan asked.

"Because we were out last night and he told to do this stupid thing for him" Mabel said

"Did you do it?" Stan asked after a short pause, his eyes still on the coins

"Well… no" Mabel admitted.

"Why not?"

"Because I…I got side-tracked by… something" she replied, hesitantly

"Was the thing Dipper asked you to do important?" Stan asked.

"Wasn't that important" Mabel said stubbornly.

"Was it important to Dipper?" Stan asked again.

"I…. guess" Mabel said quietly.

"Ah well, that's what happens" Stan said, shrugging, shifting through some more coins in his hand. "Still, I always figured brothers and sisters should count themselves lucky for having each other. I mean, you have somebody to play with. Somebody you can talk to, help you out whenever you're in trouble. Hide the messes you make and then take the blame for you. Be the look out when one of you is breaking into a bank. That last one's probably mainly done with robbers, but it's still touching"

Mabel's slowly sunk down lower into seat with each statement Grunkle Stan made, her anger beginning to replace itself with guilt.

"Someone to always be there for you" he continued. "No matter what you say or do to each other. Worst thing you can do to someone. Letting 'em down. Not being there for them when they need you the most. Life's that short too. Who knows what can happen?"

Grunkle Stan turned the coin over in his hand, his tone becoming surprisingly melancholy. But only for a second as he soon went back to his usual gruff voice.

"But you can always make things up somehow. You just gotta do what ya need to do when you get the chance. Or something like that. I don't know" he finished with a quick shrug.

Mabel said nothing and sat silently as Stan started absently counting his coins again. Her trademark smile returned as she looked up at her Grunkle with some admiration

"You know Grunkle Stan" she said. "When you're not lying, conning and trying to swindle everybody out of all their money all the time, you're really smart"

"Thanks" Stan said. "But I think I'd like that statement a lot more if it was reversed"

* * *

Somewhere out in the woods, Dipper was walking along a makeshift trail, searching for his vampire enemy. The path ahead of him was lit by the moon, which was fully visible in the cloudless sky.

"Okay. Riding solo. I can do this" Dipper said to himself. "I've done stuff without Mabel before. The photocopier clones, the manotaurs, Rumble McSkirmish. What's Mable done without me? Try to save her mermaid boyfriend and acting like a love god? "

Without missing a beat, Dipper hopped over a moss covered log and ducked a lowered branch. "Not like it's my fault. She's the one who messed up and I had to save myself. Maybe I'm better off handling this stuff on my own. Who can I rely on better than myself?"

Dipper walked further along, his stride matching the confidence in his words. But then a second later, he paused with a little more uncertainty.

"Well, I mean…I know that this is Mabel we're talking about" he said, rubbing his neck. "I know she's always been kinda crazy…but she's still my sister. And she has helped out a lot before, whenever I needed it. But sometimes I just don't always know what she'll do and then I can't trust her with anything important. And in Gravity Falls there's no one…you…can…"

Dipper slowly came to halt as he said each word, stopping in the middle of a clearing. Once he finished that particular sentence over in his head, he suddenly felt even more stupid than ever.

"Ah man" he said, with new found guilt. "Mabel, I didn't mean-"

"Do you often talk to yourself?"

Dipper bolted around with a fright at the sound of that familiar voice. He quickly scanned the clearing, but saw no one. He then looked upward and found Vincent, standing up on top of a nearby branch, leaning against the tree with one hand and looking back down at Dipper. This time, however, he didn't seem to be as laid back as he had been last night. Vincent then took one step off the branch and dropped gracefully down to the ground.

"Here I was coming to pay you a visit" he said, lightly sweeping some dust off his cape. "But looks like you decided to come find me instead"

"Well, we had so much fun last night, I just couldn't wait to see you again" Dipper said, sounding a lot calmer than how he felt.

"So you gonna give me that Journal now?" Vincent said, ignoring Dipper's banter and getting straight to the point. "Because I_ really_ would like that Journal". He slowly started to circle around Dipper, who himself had immediately mimicked Vincent's movement.

"You know, I thought hard about that, but I think my answer is still no" Dipper replied.

"Right so we're back to square one" Vincent said, a little exasperated. "So you wanna dance again? Think you can get lucky a second time?"

"Maybe I can" Dipper said, still trying to play it cool. "Let's just hope you don't knock a tree down on yourself this time"

Vincent paused in his march. He lowered his head and then gave a small, dry laugh. "Listen, _kid_" he said, looking back at Dipper with a dangerous glare. "I told before. One way or the other, I'm taking that Journal. If you honestly think, I'm going to be intimated by _you_, you're sadly mistaken"

"Well, I guess this is good" Dipper said, carefully reaching behind into his back pocket. "Otherwise, I would have brought this for nothing"

Dipper pulled his arm back out and threw a small, round object to the ground. Once made contact, the object burst open into a small cloud of dust. Vincent hissed as the cloud came near him and pulled his cape up over his mouth, holding it like a shield.

"Garlic dust?" he said.

"Bet you haven't seen that one before" Dipper said with a grin.

"Actually…." Vincent waved his free hand forward. The air in front of him was suddenly pushed away in a huge gust of wind which blew right past Dipper, getting rid of the garlic dust.

"I have" he finished. After the dust was gone, Vincent walked menacingly up to Dipper, who was already backing away.

Just as Vincent was about to reach him, Dipper reached behind his back again and quickly pulled out a familiar looking flashlight, pointing it in Vincent's direction. A bright light shot out from the flashlight, hitting Vincent in the face. As soon as the light made contact with his grey skin, it caused it to burn up like dry paper, creating a thin cloud of steam.

"This time I brought the batteries" Dipper said.

Vincent screamed and backed away from Dipper, quickly pulling his cape over his head this time, but the light was even slowly burning into the dark fabric as well, like an acid. Dipper slowly began to advance forward, making sure to keep the light on Vincent, who huddled down to the ground, still covered up by his smouldering cape.

But that was what Vincent had been expecting. Once Dipper was close enough, Vincent pressed his hand to the ground and this time, he brought the air around him upwards, creating a huge dust cloud that enveloped both him and Dipper. Dipper coughed and closed his eyes in response, his vision obscured by the dust. Before he could recover himself in time, Vincent appeared from his side and grabbed the handle of the flashlight out of Dipper's hand. He soon crushed it in his hand like a twig, shutting off the light. He then put his other free hand on Dipper's throat, hoisting him up into the air. With another wave of his hand, the dust cloud dissipated

"This time I think I'll be a little more hands on" Vincent said, his fingers now digging into Dipper's neck. "Give me that Journal, now!"

Vincent tightened his grip around Dipper's throat, nearly choking the life out of him in the process. Dipper could do nothing but kick his feet in the air, gagging on his words

"Gah…gah…" was all that Dipper could say.

"Sorry, but I don't speak 'gahgahgah" Vincent said dryly. "So we'll do this the quick way"

Vincent squeezed Dipper's neck, forcing him to open up his eyes. As soon as he did, Vincent's own eyes lit up with a bright red colour and stared directly into Dipper's.

Dipper now felt a strange burning sensation in his mind, like someone had lit a match on the inside of his brain. It wasn't actually painful, but somewhat blissful as he felt an urge to just fall back and relax. But Dipper realised what this really meant and quickly tried to resist the burning feeling. He managed to shut his eyes closed and started struggling once again, feebly trying to pry Vincent's fingers open.

"You can't resist me" Vincent said, unimpressed by Dipper's efforts. "I know everything you're thinking!"

Dipper managed to open up one of his eyes and when he did, he was able to focus his attention on something just over Vincent's head.

"Maybe" he managed to choke out. "But….uh….there's no way you can know….what my sister is thinking!"

"Sister?" Vincent repeated, sounding confused. Just then a horn blared from behind and a set of headlights could be seen fast approaching. The Mystery Cart burst from out of the brush and swerved into the middle of the clearing, tearing up the dirt underneath. When it came to a halt, Mabel jumped out of the driver seat and stood opposite Vincent and Dipper.

"Hey you!" she called out, pointing at Vincent. "Leave my brother alone"

Vincent looked as though he wasn't sure how he should react to Mabel. He briefly glanced up and down at her for a second, while still holding Dipper in the air, who had now begun to turn a brighter shade of purple, his eyes bulging out of his head.

"What's this?" Vincent said. "A twin? That's cute, but I'm a little busy". Vincent turned his attention back to Dipper, but then Mabel raised her voice again.

"I said put him down, you walking one dimensional, unoriginal boringly evil-vampire-boy-stereotype!"

Vincent slowly turned his head to Mabel, raising one eyebrow. Dipper now looked like he might be choking on his actual tongue at this point. With his eyes still on Mabel, Vincent opened his hand and dropped Dipper to the ground, who took in a very long inhalation of breath once he was free.

After he let go of Dipper, Vincent silently walked over to Mabel, who was still standing her ground firmly. Vincent stopped about a few inches right in front of her and for a second the two of them were standing opposite one another, caught in a stare off.

"Okay, now you have my attention" Vincent said, bending down slightly, to look Mabel in the face. "So, you want to leave your brother alone? Well, what are you going to do about it little girl?"

Mabel stared right at Vincent without a hint of fear. With a small grunt, Mabel pulled her hand all the way around her back and slapped her palm into Vincent's smug face. However, when she pulled her arm back again, she had left something behind on Vincent's face.

A large brown sticker shaped like a cute little brown, with the words 'Hug Me or I'll Eat You' colourfully plastered across it, was now covering Vincent's entire face like a large wrapper, cutting off his eyes and mouth. Briefly caught off guard, he instinctively pulled up his hands to try and pull the sticker off, but it seemed to be stuck tighter than it looked.

But before Vincent could make any progress with getting it off, Mabel brought her knee up high and socked him right below the belt. For a second Vincent's cheeks puckered outward, his moan muffled by the sticker, as his legs started to buckle, slowing bringing him down to his knees.

While he momentarily incapacitated, Mabel ran right around him and over to Dipper, still sitting on the ground in some state of surprise.

"Come on!" Mabel yelled, grabbing Dipper by the arm and dragging him to the Cart. Once they reached it, Mabel hopped back into the driver seat and Dipper in the passenger seat. She turned the key and slammed her foot on the pedal, steering the Cart back into the woods

With an inhuman snarl, Vincent stood back up and ripped the sticker off his face just in time to see Dipper and Mabel escape.

"Get back here!" he growled

He was about to take off after them, when he heard a beeping sound from his pocket. He pulled out his phone, the alarm already going off again, alerting him that the sun would rise soon. For a second, he looked back and forward between the beeping phone and Cart, shrinking in the distance. He then stuck the phone back into his pocket and levitated himself into the air, going after Dipper and Mabel.

Driving as fast as they could, Dipper and Mabel bounced in their seats as the Mystery Cart ploughed through the thickets of the woods. In the review mirror, they could see Vincent approaching from the up above. Mabel quickly veered the Cart off to the left, sending them right through a thick array of bushes, spraying leaves into their faces. After they were clear of the bush, Dipper and Mabel settled their eyes for a minute on a familiar looking gnome that was now standing on the dashboard of the Cart.

"Well hello there" he said casually

Mabel swiftly grabbed a hold of the gnome and chucked him directly at Vincent, who was closing in from behind. The gnome latched onto his face, causing him to tumble backwards. Vincent pulled the gnome off his face and briefly shared a small glance with him

"Well hello there" the gnome repeated, just before Vincent viciously threw him behind his back and into a tree.

Falling behind, Vincent tried to use his power to pull the Cart to a stop, but he soon found it to be increasingly difficult to focus his mind on the vehicle, as it kept moving further and further away, gaining too much distance from him. Every time he thought he'd got a hold of it, the Cart just slipped out of his mental grasp.

As Dipper and Mabel kept speeding away from him, Vincent's frustration was soon beginning to get the better of him. Coming to a halt in midair, he stared at the retreating Cart, his arms and shoulders shaking with rage at these constant setbacks.

Breathing through his nose, his nostril flaring, Vincent turned his head toward a large, thick looking tree. Gesturing at it with both hands, the tree slowly began to rumble and shake loose from the ground. A series of veins appeared across Vincent's forehead, his mind straining with effort as he pulled harder and harder on the massive tree until finally it came all the out of the ground and floated directly above his head. Swinging his arms down, he hurled the tree forward, in the same direction as the Mystery Cart.

"Think we lost him?" Mabel asked as they had almost made back to the Mystery Shack.

Dipper glanced backwards, seeing no sign of Vincent and was about answer Mabel when he noticed a shadow looming above them.

"…. No" Dipper said, looking upwards with a sick expression. Both he and Mabel screamed as the tree came down on them. It hit the ground behind them, barely just missing the Cart, but the force of the impact was enough to send it bouncing up through the air.

The Cart burst out from the thick of the woods and landed right into the yard outside the Mystery Shack. Both Dipper and Mabel were thrown out by the force of the landing, hitting the ground two separate locations.

Mable groggily shook her head, which was still spinning from the landing. But before she could get up again, Mabel jumped backwards as Vincent right in front of her with a loud thud. He now looked even less human than before, his eyes burning bright red, his cape and hair floating up in the air.

"I am done playing games here!" he said, baring his fangs and advancing on Mabel, was retreating back from him.

Dipper soon stood up again, and then saw Vincent going after his sister. Seeing that Mabel was in danger, he looked around in a panic, trying to find something to turn the situation around, until something caught his eye. Vincent merely a few feet away from Mabel and was just about to pounce on her, until Dipper rushed in between them.

"Hold it!" he yelled. Vincent stopped in his tracks and stared at Dipper, who now aiming a long cylinder object attached to a small motor, directly at him.

"S-seriously?" Vincent said, so bemused that his anger had alleviated somewhat. "A leaf blower? Now you're just being ridiculo-"

Dipper turned the blower on full blast and out of it, came a small cloud of gray like dust that blew into Vincent's face. And once it did, every inch of skin that the dust touched, burst into a violent flurry of blisters.

"Anybody ever tried that one before?" Dipper asked coyly. Vincent back away from him and clutched his face, his hands over his eyes, as his skin continued to burn

"AHHH! My eyes! I can't see!"

While Vincent had begun to fumbling about aimlessly, Mabel ran back to the Mystery Cart and pulled a small jar of silver coins out from behind the driver's seat. Running back to still blinded Vincnet, she snuck up behind him and pulled open the back of his collar

"Here's your change!" Mabel said, pouring the coins right down his back. Vincent screamed even louder, his hands desperately clawing at his back, steaming beginning to boil out from under his shirt. Vincnet moved away from Dipper and Mabel, and soon he was waddling around like a chicken without his head. After a few moments, Vincent fell to the ground, dazed and nauseous looking, the combination of garlic and sliver taking a heavy toll on him. Finally, he managed to steady himself somewhat and his eyes could just barely make out the Pines twins once again.

"You…" he groaned weakly, pointing at them. "You think…you can….stop me. I… will _not_... be, oh…". Vincent bobbed his head back and forward, wobbling away on his feet.

"I… am gonna… ah!" Vincent then fell silent, his eyes widening like dinner plates. His drowsiness had vanished, being replaced with absolute terror, as he let out a quiet gasp, looking at something that was behind Dipper and Mabel.

The two of them were confused by Vincent's sudden fear. It was only when they turned around did they noticed the bright yellow light that was creeping out from over the tree tops, which could only be coming from one thing.

Dipper and Mabel quickly looked at the sunlight, then to still scared Vincnet, and then to each other. After sharing a knowing smile and a nod, they both understood what they were going to do. Dipper ran off by himself, heading for the Mystery Cart, while Mabel remained where she was.

Vincnet took his eyes off the light that was fast approaching and quickly turned around, preparing to fly off in the opposite direction. But he only made it a few inches off the ground, when felt his leg get snagged on something that yanked him back down. Vincnet looked down at his leg and saw that a large hook tied to a rope was wrapped around his ankle. He followed the length of the rope, the end of which was coming out of a small gun that Mabel was holding.

"Grappling hook" she said, with an evil grin. Just as she said that, Dipper pulled the Mystery Cart up beside her. Still holding onto the gun, Mabel jumped inside.

"Punch it!" she yelled.

Dipper reeved the Mystery Cart, the tires tearing up the ground as he drove forward, dragging Vincnet behind them and into the direction of the sunrise. Vincent dug his hands into the ground, trying desperately to keep himself from going into the light. Jumping back into the air, Vincent flew up into the air and pushed his body forward, now dragging the Cart behind him.

Mabel had one hand on the grappling hook and another on the Mystery Cart, holding on as tight as she could. Dipper pressed his foot down harder on the accelerator, forcing the cart to keep going forward. Vincnet in turn was trying to pull forward as well, which resulted in what looked like a weird tug of war

Soon neither party was able to move in any direction, but that didn't matter. The sunlight had passed the trees, and was now crossing the yard, going right over the reeving Cart and along the grappling hooks rope, coming closer to Vincent. Seeing this, Vincent pulled on his leg with a panicked cry, trying to wretch his body free of the grappling hook. But it was too late. He looked up just in time to see the last drop of shadow disappeared over his head.

The sunlight hit Vincent in full blast, as he let out an unearthly scream. The light covered his whole body, causing it to erupt into a brilliant display of flames. His flesh and clothes were burning away in a matter of seconds. For a moment he looked like a skeleton that was set on fire. Vincnet continued to scream and burn helplessly, until finally, he exploded into a shower of dust and flames.

Once the explosion went off, the grappling hook came undone, releasing the cart which caused it to be propelled straight forward at full speed in the direction of a tree. Unable to get to slow in time, Dipper and Mabel jumped out from Cart just before it hit the tree, rolling away on the ground from the impact, which created a huge crack in the tree trunk, causing the whole tree to fall back to one side.

Getting back up, Dipper and Mabel took a moment to look over everything that had just happened. They walked over to where Vincent had exploded. There was nothing left of him. All that remained was a smoking, black scorch mark in the shape of a circle around the area where Vincnet had gone up in.

"Well…that was certainly something" Dipper said, breaking the long silence.

"Yup" Mabel concurred. For another minute the two of them just stood there, not looking or saying anything to each other. Mabel was the first to speak.

"Look, Dipper I'm sorry I messed up before" Mabel said apologetically.

"No, I'm the one who's sorry" Dipper said. "I'm sorry for yelling at you and calling my sidekick. That was unfair and really mean and-"

"Yeah, yeah" Mabel cut over him. "You're apologizing, I'm apologizing. Want to just skip to the awkward sibling hug?" Mabel stretched her arms out, waiting for Dipper to return the favour

Dipper smiled and soon obliged by hugging Mabel

"Pat, pat" they both said, patting each on the back and then letting go.

"Thanks" Dipper said, gratefully. "For saving me"

"Hey, I had to save the other half of my brain". Mabel started to wobble to her right side again. This time, however, Dipper joined in and wobbled along with her to his left side. They then put their arms around each other's shoulders and pressed their heads together to steady themselves, laughing happily as they did. After another minute of playing with each other, they separated again, their laughter dying down.

"And, I am sorry about before" Dipper said, sounding sincere. "You're not my sidekick and you're not my partner either. You my sister. And something tells that's all I'll ever need you to be"

Mabel smiled tenderly at her brother and was about to return the compliment, when they heard the door of the Mystery Shack open, Grunkle Stan briskly walking out of it

"Hey kids, are you out h-?"

Stan fell silent as soon as he saw Dipper and Mabel standing in front of the destroyed Mystery Cart still lodged into the bottom trunk of the tumbled tree.

"I'm beginning to think I'm a very bad parental figure" Stan said, after a short pause.

"Well, we can scratch one vampire off our to-do list" Mabel said, as she and Dipper walked back to the Mystery Shack.

"So did you think he was cute?" Dipper asked with a smirk

"Eh, I've seen better" Mabel replied, with a smirk of her own. "So what did he want the Journal for anyway?"

"Who knows?" Dipper shrugged. "Doesn't matter now. We've seen the last of him"

* * *

A few miles away from the Mystery Shack, deep underground, the crypt of Count Voltaruss was just quiet and empty as it had been before, the large hole in the stone floor still there. The peacefulness of the crypt suddenly ended when a small, whirlwind formed from literally out of nowhere in the middle of the room

The whirlwind spun faster and faster, gathering up a huge cloud of dust that converged into a single space in the air. The dust particles slowly started to bind together into one large mass. Not just that, it gradually began forming a distinctive shape. As more and more dust was bound together, this shape could now clearly be seen as a human skeleton.

As the bones began to solidify, a layer of grey skin spread across the skeleton and then another layer of black spread over the skin. The black layer moved up near the neck of the floating body and stretched outwards becoming a long cape. The arms and legs of this figure, twisted and contorted, until they snapped into place. The whirlwind then finally disappeared, just as Vincent had finished reforming

Vincent fell to the floor on his knees, struggling to breathe. After a few seconds of coughing, he managed to catch his breath. He reached his hand down into his collar and pulled out a line of string. Attached at the bottom of the string was small, round, golden amulet.

In the centre of the amulet were five jewels. Three of them were bright green, while the other two were black. Then, without warning, one of the green jewels suddenly turned to black, leaving only two green ones left.

Vincent stored the amulet back under his collar. With one hand on his knee, he managed to push himself back upward, looking a bit haggard, but still brimming with anger. Still breathing hard, Vincent closed his eyes and took a long, slow breath and exhale, allowing himself to calm down.

"Okay, time to change tactics"

* * *

**Whew, thought I'd never get this finished. So hope you like the chapter, though unfortunately, due to the lack of reviews I've gotten, this may potentially the last chapter that I post for this story. Now I'm not saying that to just as an incentive to everybody to start reviewing or anything. Its just that, when I receive no feedback at all, I have no idea if anyone if enjoying this story or if there is anything I can improve on. Of course at the same time, I am still very grateful to those that did review. The thing is, I just want to know if this is something worth continuing, because I do have other stories that I would like to start on again. So if you can please leave a review and share some of your thoughts**

**Peace out**


	6. The Pagent

"And then I was all like 'Here's your change', and then I poured the coins down his back, and then I took my grappling hook and I was like 'Yo here's my grappling hook son', and it was like, POW, boom, and then the sun came out, and then he blew up! Woo! After that me, Dipper and Grunkle Stan had some gummy bear pancakes. The end!"

Mabel was standing on top of a table in the food court of the Gravity Falls mall. In front of her, Dipper was sitting next to Candy and Grenda, who were both slacked jawed at Mabel's retelling of their recent adventure

"Wow. Your weekends are so much more exciting than ours" Grenda said. "All we did was eat cheese puffs and watch Baby Fights"

"Why did you not tell us there was a young vampire aristocratic nearby?" Candy said. "My childhood reading has instilled in me the burning desire to seek out a vampire romance"

"Vampires are so last year" Mabel said coolly, sitting back in her seat. "Now invisible men. Those are what's hot. You can never know what their game really is. You can't even tell if there's one lurking by or not. So mysterious"

"Have you read the latest inappropriate romance novel?" Candy asked. "Sixty four Flavours of Ice Cream? It is a story about a young, up and coming reporter, who finds herself in love with a successful and suave looking ice cream man. It is said to be highly original, despite starting off as a blog about a fanfiction about an ice cream commercial"

"What?!" Grenda said abruptly, in a very loud voice, holding her phone up to her ear "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you there. I was just getting a call from Marius. Marius, my boyfriend. My rich boyfriend. My boyfriend Marius, who is very rich. Rich is boyfriend Marius, who is mine. Mine is rich boy that is friend"

Dipper sighed as he leaned his head down on his arm, feeling a little out of place with the current conversation. Losing himself in his thoughts, as he drowned out the sound of Mabel having her 'girl talk'. His eyes drifted around the mall, doing their best to find something of interest. And then they found something that interested Dipper a surprising amount. He had spotted Pacifica walking nearby, carrying a small plastic bag on her arm.

"Hey, Pacifica" Dipper called out to her, before he had even realised he had done it. Pacifica stopped walking and turned her head to his voice, seeing him in the food court

"Oh, um hi Dipper" she replied, waving back at him. Dipper waved as well, and for a second couldn't seem to think of anything else to say

"Ah…do you want to grab a soda with us?" he asked out of the blue. Pacifica looked as though she wasn't sure if she really wanted to come and join Dipper or not, as she eyed Mabel and the others, who were now messing around with their food.

"Um…yeah ok" she said shrugging a little. She walked into the food court and bought herself a drink. Dipper walked out of his chair and sat down with Pacifica at another table. For a minute, they sat together in an awkward silence, one of them occasionally taking a sip of their drink as they waited.

"So what are you doing here?" he asked,

"Shopping" she said, holding up her bag. "It's been like four days since I got a new pair of shoes"

"Right, because a normal person isn't able to go four days wearing the same pair of shoes all the time" Dipper said dryly.

"Um, it's called having style" Pacifica said, with a grin

"Um, it's called being conservative" Dipper said, with an equal grin. "I don't see the big deal in having like hundred different clothes. As long as the ones you're wearing don't have holes in them, they're fine"

"I think I'm going to have to take you shopping some time, cause I'd say you have the fashion sense of a spoon" she said, playfully tipping at his hat.

"Mmm fashion sense or higher education" Dipper said playfully. "Tough call, but I'll take the education"

"Said every nerd who dresses themselves in the dark" Pacifica said coyly

"Yeah well I'm a nerd who kills vampires" Dipper replied. "Haven't you heard?"

"Whoa. Since when did they become friends?" Grenda asked, watching Dipper and Pacifica converse

"Is there something going between them?" Candy asked.

"I think Dipper might be 'jumping the ship' as it were" Mabel said with a laugh. "But it's fine. Nothing's actually gonna come out of it"

"You sure?" Grenda asked, still watching the two of them. "Cause their getting on really well now. Like surprisingly well"

"It's just a friendly thing" Mabel said dismissively, taking a sip of her drink. "They're not really going to end up with…" Mabel stopped in mid-sentence when she heard Dipper and Pacifica laughing again, and now she seemed to be watching their exchange with far more interest

"And then like boom, he blew up" Dipper said. "So if you ever have a vampire haunting your house next time, just let me know". Dipper leaned down on his elbow, looking rather smug.

"Yeah, you seriously have the freakiest weekends" Pacifica said, half complementing him. "Good thing I didn't ask to come along this time"

"Well you know" Dipper said, scratching his head. "You're still welcome to come over if you ever-"

"Hey, guys" Mabel almost threw herself on the table between the two of them. "What to see who can get brain freeze the fastest? Me first!"

Mabel garbed Dipper and Pacifica's drinks, putting both straws in her mouth and sucking up them as fast she could. Once she had finished, her face and eyes frozen up in awkward positions, as she just backwards to the ground. Dipper and Pacifica looked down at her and then at each other with some concern.

* * *

Half an hour later, after Dipper and the others 'defrosted' Mabel, they decided to go find something to do elsewhere. It was on the way to the exit, did the kids notice a commotion over at the other end of the mall. A large crowd was gathering in front of a table. Once Dipper and the others moved through the crowd, they were close enough to see what was going on.

A very skinny looking women, whose face was stretched out so far it looked like the only thing keeping together was the excessive amount of makeup she was wearing, and a wig of hair that probably weighed more than her whole body, was standing atop the table, speaking into a large microphone. Enchanting was playing on a music box at her feet along with a small disco ball that lit up the area

"Come one, come all" the woman said. "To this year's annual, Little Miss Gravity Falls!"

"Who the heck is that?" Dipper asked.

"That's Madame Anne T. Suffrage" Pacifica answered.

"You know her?" Dipper said.

"She co-hosts the Little Miss Gravity Falls beauty pageant every year" Pacifica explained. She, along with others, soon fell silent as the so called Madame Suffrage continued her announcement.

"Come and see the Little Miss Gravity Falls beauty pageant. The day where one lucky girl has the chance to shine like a bright dazzling star that will illuminate this endless, mundane void of a town! A chance to stand out above all the unostentatious pedestrians. To let their own radiance rebound off of them and magnify tenfold. The chance to show all the world who is the prettiest, cutest and most adorablest little girl out of all the other barefooted urchins that crawl through the mud. A chance to show the true meaning of….. beauty"

Madame Suffrage finished her speech in a raspy whisper, before gasping heavily, completely out of breath and then just fainting in an overly dramatic fashion, laying sprawled out across the table. After a short pause, a younger, much simpler looking man stepped up beside the table, holding out a clipboard. He took the microphone from the unconscious Madame Suffrage and cleared throat as he spoke in a far more toned down voice.

"Uh, yeah, the signup sheet is here" he said. "Anyone who wants to take part, just give us your name please"

"Are you going to enter?" Dipper asked, once he saw the look in Pacifica's eye

"Duh, I enter every year" she said

"Oh, maybe I can enter too!" Mabel said, sounding excited

"Um, this is the Little Miss Gravity Falls beauty pageant" Pacifica said, with only a small hint of mockery. "Might be a little out of your league". Mabel then gave Pacifica a spirited look

"Oh ho. Sounds like a challenge" .Before Mabel could say anything else, Dipper pulled her back slightly.

"Mabel, I thought you got over all this rivalry stuff" he said in a whisper

"I did" she said in an assuring manner. "But that doesn't mean I'm gonna pass up every competition that comes along. It's just for fun"

"Why, my dear Pacifica!" Madame Suffrage exclaimed, recognising Pacifica at once as she approached. "The princess of class and style has returned to grace us once again"

"Yeah, that's me" Pacifica said, a little smugly. "Sign me up, please"

"Sign me up too" Mabel said.

"You?" Madame Suffrage scoffed when she took notice of Mabel. "Silly girl, you truly think you stand against Pacifica Northwest?"

"Of course I do. We're kinda eternal rivals" Mabel joked, putting an arm around Pacifica. "Me and her, we fight over everything. Singing, mini golf and guessing the weight of a pigs"

"What?" Pacifica said at the last part

"Rivals?" Madame Suffrage said with disbelief. "You? What with those braces and that sweater? How unsightly!" Before she went further, Madame Suffrage paused for a moment to examine Mabel more closely. "But then again…these dimpled cheeks. And those innocent eyes. And such an adorable charm. Perhaps not beauty, but certainly cute. Such potential!"

Madame Suffrage pressed her hands into Mabel's cheeks, scrunching up face and literally picked her up into the air, her body dangling limply. Despite the awkward position, Mabel still managed a smile at Madame Suffrage's compliments

"Could this in fact be a potential rival for you my dear Pacifica? You two must enter the pageant together!" Madame Suffrage now squeezed Mabel underneath her arm, as she shook her fist with vigour. "Only through competitive comparison and the crushing humiliation of one's opponents can the true strength of one's inner beauty shine!"

Madame Suffrage unceremoniously threw Mabel back to the ground. Dipper looked down at his sister who remained flat on her back, who stared back at him in return.

"This pageant is awesome" she whispered with barely contained excitement. Mabel quickly sat up straight again and rushed over to write her name down on the signup sheet.

"What you get if you win?" Mabel asked once she was done. Madame Suffrage didn't miss the chance to answer, as she prepared for another speech.

"You will be immortalized forever and-"

"You win a crown and a certificate" the attendant said bluntly, stopping Madame Suffrage short. "Also you get two free coupons for a medium pizza"

"SIGN US UP!" Grenda and Candy yelled in unison, pushing their way to the table

"You sure you want to do this?" Pacifica asked Mabel, as the two of them and Dipper walked away from the sign up desk. "I've won this thing three years in a row"

"Eh it just for fun. Why, don't tell me your actual scared I'm gonna win, are you?" Mabel said, giving Pacifica a cheeky look.

"I'm not scared" Pacifica said. "Just because we're friends doesn't mean I'm just gonna let you win". It was only a few seconds after Pacifica had said that, did she noticed the odd stare Mabel was giving her.

"What?" she said, starting to feel uncomfortable.

"You-you just said we were friends" Mabel said, her face creeping into a smile

"N-no I didn't" Pacifica said quickly.

"Yes you did!"

"No! I said just because we're…fondly…doesn't mean you're gonna win"

"Friendship hug!" Mabel yelled

"No I'm not your fri-" Pacifica said angrily, but was cut off when Mabel grasped her inside a hug.

"Friendship hug!" Grenda and Candy reappeared just in time to catch both Mabel and Pacifica in their hug. Grenda opened her arms out wide and pulled Mabel, Pacifica and Candy in one big bear hug. Pacifica face was now pressed in between Mabel's and Candy's. She didn't say anything in protest, but her eyes were giving out very cold stare. She then glanced around to glare at Dipper who did nothing but chuckle and smile at her expense.

* * *

_Later that night_.

In the deep woods, a group of squirrels was gathered together on a tree branch, innocently eating away at some acorns. Suddenly they all paused and tensed up for a second, sensing something off in the distance. They remained frozen in place by instinct, their eyes focused intently on the bushed down below them, when in the blink of an eye, a claw like hand snatched up one squirrel from the behind which caused the others to immediately flee in fear.

The hand belonged to none other than Vincent, who absently chewed away at something on one side of his mouth. A furry tail could clearly be seen sticking out of the corner of his mouth, moving around as he chewed. Vincent pulled the tail away from his lip, as he continued chomping on his meal before gulping the whole thing down, with a somewhat dissatisfied expression.

"Blah, animals" he said in disgust, floating down to the ground. "Never as good as human blood, but it'll have to do. Got to maintain a low profile for now. Now if memory serves, it's usually around here somewhere".

Vincent glanced around the foreboding forest, trying to spot any sign of movement, scratching his chin curiously. Then suddenly, there came a loud thud noise from behind. Turning around, Vincent now found himself standing right in front of what he had been looking for. A very large and very anger looking Gremloblin, which snarled and growled menacingly.

Taking notice of him, the Gremloblin bent down low to Vincent's level and stared at him with his glowing yellow eyes, which Vincent meet with a steady gaze. When nothing else happened, the Gremloblin then let loose a mighty roar into Vincent's calm face. Once the Gremloblin had run out of breath, Vincent, who was not the least bit perturbed or scared by its performance, simply raised one hand up and slapped the monster across the face, which resulted in him yelping feebly, putting his hand up to his cheek in shock. Vincent then reached up and grabbed the Gremloblin by the ear, twisted it so hard that it brought him down to his knees. The Gremloblin immediately started squealing with fear, kicking and whining in submission like a whipped dog.

"Oh shut up you big baby" Vincent said impatiently. As he held the Gremloblin down, Vincent reached behind his cape and took out a small glass bottle. He held up near the Gremloblin's mouth. "Here, now spit into this"

The Gremloblin obliged and spat out a huge glob of its yellow saliva into the bottle, as well as onto Vincent's hand. Vincent groaned with disgust as he felt the ooze slide down his hand.

He quickly released the Gremloblin and no sooner than he did, the beast ran away into the woods, sobbing miserably like a little girl. Vincent groaned again and rolled his eyes, stowing the bottle back into his pocket, wiping his still slimy hand off on his cape.

"Okay, that's one down. Now where is next one?"

Vincent continued his trek through the woods, his footsteps as silent as the dead(*sigh*). As he walked around, he kept pausing to approach some of the trees, taking a moment to look them over, before moving on to another, evidently, none of them living up to his inspection. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something obscure sticking out from behind a rock formation. Moving around the rocks, Vincent found a mangled and dead looking tree, the roots of which were dug into the side of a huge boulder like a weed.

"Aha, here we go" Vincent said.

Vincent levitated a few inches off the ground and then drifted closer to the decrepit tree, stopping just in front of the lower bark. For a moment Vincent seemed to scan the tree for something in particular.

He then placed the tip of one of his claw-like nails into the middle of the bark and slowly dragged his finger right down the centre, splitting the wood open. A large mass of green tree sap oozed out from the vertical cut, slowly dripping to the ground.

With a satisfied smile, Vincent then reached behind his cape and pulled out another empty glass bottle. He held the bottle underneath the slime, letting it fill about half way, being careful not to get any of the slime on his hands. He then pulled out the glass bottle of Gremloblin spit he had gotten earlier from. He opened it and poured the spit into the second bottle. Closing the lid, he shook the bottle the vigorously, rapidly mixing the two substances together.

Holding the jar up high, Vincent smiled sinisterly, as the colour of the slime went from green to a pale grey as it swirl around idly inside the glass

* * *

**Happy 4****th**** of July to those that celebrate it. Thanks a lot for the reviews I got last time. I am going to keep this story going for at least two more chapters, but I'm not sure when the ending will be, since I never really think about the ending when I start a story.**

**For anybody who's curious, Vincent is not cooking up anything good, but this is only the first step a much longer plan he has in place. The next part's gonna include something big on four legs**

**Peace out**


	7. Love Conquers All(Except Slime Montsers)

The next day, the Little Miss Gravity Falls pageant was underway. The contest was taking place in the mall. A small stage platform had been set up, with most of the decoration and orientation being overlooked by Madame Suffrage and her attendant. The judges table was situated in front of the stage and the judges consisted of Manly Dan, Lazy Susan and Old Man McGucket, who for some reason had a large bandage around his neck.

The crowd of spectators was gathered around behind the judges table, spread out across the rows of fold up chairs, and was made up of the usual Gravity Falls locals, including Baron Marius von Fundshauser, who come to cheer Grenda on. Wendy and Soos were also in attendance, sitting beside each other near the middle of the chairs.

"Ugh, I hate this pageant" Wendy said bitterly. "My Mom made me sign up for it when I was a kid. It's so antifeminist"

"I know how you feel" Soos added. "My Grandma made me enter a bunch of pageants too when I was younger, so we could those coupons for free pizza".

Wendy cocked an eyebrow at Soos and turned to stare at him. "Soos, the pageant is only for girls"

Soos lowered his head down and avoided Wendy's eye. "I have many shameful skeletons in my closet"

* * *

The four girls along with Dipper entered the dressing room that was around the back of the stage. Inside they found a number of girls, from what looked like various regions and stereotypes. A lot of them were also being coached their mothers. And some of the mothers were also being coached by their own mother's as well.

"Remember to stand up straight" said one mother to her daughter.

"Remember to keep nagging her" said the grandmother to her daughter.

"Oh, I'm getting nervous" Grenda said, looking at the competition. "Quick Candy, my cheese whiz!" Candy handed Grenda a spray can of cheese whiz, which Grenda shook and sprayed a helpful portion into her mouth

"I tried to warn you that this thing isn't for pushovers" Pacifica said.

"Hey guys, come on, " Mabel said, trying to keep things calm. "This is only a competition for fun. And I'm sure nobody's going to contradict that statement right after I said it"

"Attention ladies" called Madame Suffrage as she entered the room, followed by her attendant. "Let me make something very clear. This is NOT only competition that's just for fun, regardless of what anybody else tells you. Nothing in your life will ever amount to anything more, other than this glorious moment that awaits you when you win. And for the losers, know that while you shall live the rest of your life in shame, you defeat will be a reminder for the winner that they are superior. Now get yourself ready and remember not to have fun"

After Madame Suffrage had finished, the attendant spoke up again. "Uh yeah, we gonna start soon, so can everyone just get ready please"

"Wow, they play for keeps here" Grenda said, just as stunned as the others.

"Well, you guys look like you're gonna be busy, so…" Dipper prepared to make his leave, when he came to a halt at the dramatic sound of Madame Suffrage's voice

"YOU!" Madame Suffrage walked over to Dipper, pointing a sharp finger into his nose.

"Me?" he said, nervously.

"Yes you! Do you know how to use a camera?" Madame Suffrage clicked her fingers and her attendant pulled out a photographer's camera, handing it to Dipper, who regarded it with confusion.

"The first stage of the pageant is a photoshoot" Madame Suffrage said. "Our regular photographer quit after suffering a nervous break. So we need someone to fill in. Now do you have any experience in photography?"

"Well, I once managed to catch a blurry picture of what I think might have been a relation of Big Foot" Dipper answered. "Or at the very least it was a large badger. Does that count?"

"If you can point it in the direction of the girls, then you're overqualified" the attendant said dryly.

Taking the camera, Dipper was now forced to snap pictures of each pageant contestant in turns. Many of them required several do overs to change things like their dress, hair and the poses they were striking, with Dipper having to take a picture each time

"For some reason this is making me feel more awkward and sweaty than usual" Dipper said in between camera flashes. He had gone through most of the girls, including Grenda, Candy and Mabel, who** insisted** on posing with Waddles. Then came Pacifica.

"I'm ready for my close up Mr Pines" she said in a breathless manner.

Dipper chuckled a little as he aimed the camera at her. He held his finger over the button, but did not initially press it. Instead, he paused for a quite a long moment to look at Pacifica through the camera lens. In the back of his head, he was reminding himself to take the shot, but another part of his head seemed to be telling him to wait.

"Um…hello?" Pacifica said, impatiently.

"What?" Dipper said, looking up from the camera. "Oh…I uh…um"

Dipper looked through the lens of the camera again, but this time what he saw wasn't Pacifica, but instead a huge spider. Startled, Dipper back away with a small cry. When he looked at it again without the camera, he could now see that a small spider was hanging down by its web directly in front of where he had been aiming the camera. Dipper lightly swatted the spider with his hand, trying to scare it away. The spider detached itself from its web and landed on the floor, before quickly scurried off into a dark corner.

* * *

After the photoshoot, came the rest of the pageant so called activates, which consisted of best dress, best hair, the talent competition (you don't what to know what Mabel's was), runway walk, singing and the swimsuit competition. Next up would be the personal question. Every girl remaining was given a sheet of possible questions, and were allowed a small break to practice. Pacifica was out around the side of the stage and was waiting for Dipper to bring her the question sheet. For a second her face brightened up at the thought of this. However, her face soon turned to displeasure when she saw her parents approaching

"Hello, there darling" said her father, sounding pleasant, but still not very warm.

"Oh. Hey Dad, hey Mom" she replied, sounding unenthusiastic

"We're quiet please with performance out there, dear" said her father. "Goodness knows we don't need our reputation tarnished any further. Not after the fiasco at the party. So please understand your performance in the pageant is essential in reminding the town we are better than them"

"Yeah, whatever" Pacifica said with an eye roll, not looking directly at them.

"Good" her father said with a nod. "And don't worry. We already bribed the judges to make sure you win"

"You-what?" Pacifica said, giving her parents her full attention

"Don't worry" her father said assuredly. "The money was fake anyway"

"I don't want you to bribe anybody just to let me win" Pacifica said angrily. "See, this is what I'm saying. How is anybody supposed to really respect us if we everything we have, we get by cheating?"

"Because the important thing is we don't get caught. And if we do, we bribe the witnesses. Now good luck with the pageant, which of course you don't need, but saying it will help avoid suspicion"

With that both of Pacifica's parents left their daughter alone again, oblivious to the fuming look of fury on her face. After they were gone, Dipper walked up beside Pacifica, holding a sheet of paper.

"Hey, Pacifica, you said you wanted help to practice these questions. When do feel anger is the best response to an issue?"

Pacifica answer his question by grabbing the question paper out of Dipper's hands and furiously started ripping it up into sherds. Dipper quietly stepped a couple of feet away from her, as she vented out her anger

* * *

"'If you had to choose between kittens or puppies what would you pick?' Mmm, what's a fair answer? I know! Combine them to together to make kitpies. Or puptens! Oh, how do I choose?". Mabel was sitting down at a small table reading off the list of question, rubbing the temple of her forehead in concentration. "This pageant such an intellectual challenge".

"Hey Mabel" called Soos as he entered the dressing room. "How are you feeling about the competition so far?" he asked.

"Pretty good so far" she replied. "That cowboy girl's starting to look weak, and I think the girl in the kimono will break next round"

"Oh cool" Soos said. I just hope it goes better than the sing off you had against Pacifica. You know when she used her money to help her win by bribing the audience"

"She…wouldn't do that with this" Mabel, laughing a bit nervously. "You…think?"

"Oh dude, I don't even know what's going anymore" Soos said, a little disturbed. "Everything's been acting so different for a while now. Like as if there's this weird and bored super entity that's controlling what we're all doing, but doesn't know how to do it right and is making it look so unrealistic. It's creepy"

"But anyway, the reason I came by was cause I forgot to tell that this came for you in the morning". Soos handed Mabel a small brown parcel. Quickly doing the paper wrapping, she opened the parcel to reveal a round metal container with a note on. Mabel pulled off the note.

"Pulchra Care Face Cream' she read. "'Just one touch and your skin will be smoother than silk and softer than marshmallow pudding. Which is really soft, by the way'. Oooh! All that sounds really appealing and directly influences me to want to use it. Can't find the power of a good sales pitch!"

Mabel opened the lid of the container and inside of it was a small amount of gray ooze. She was just about to tip her two fingers into the material, when Soos spoke again.

"Oh, by the way, you know what else I got this morning?" he said. "Some more letters from Gideon. Ha, guess he's still madly in love with you, even though you got him thrown into prison. Do you think he sent you that cream too?"

As soon as Soos had put this suggestion into Mabel's head, she quickly pulled her hand away from the cream with revulsion, not wanting to touch anything that had come from Gideon. Mable then threw the cream onto the table

"Ugh, that creep! Can't he take a hint?"

"Attention, the next part of the pageant is going to begin. Would every please gather to the front stage"

Hearing this, Mabel stood up from her seat and made her way to the stage, along with Soos. A few seconds later, Grenda was making her way to the stage as well, until she sat down in the seat Mabel had just left, placing her hand over her stomach.

"Whew, being beautiful sure makes you hungry". She pulled out her cheese whip spray and opened her mouth, but to her disappointment she found that the spray had emptied. Grenda then spotted the cream that Mabel had just discarded, the lid of it still open.

"Ooh, yogurt!" she said. Grenda quickly picked the cream up and immediately started to scarf it down with vigour.

* * *

The pageant contestants were all lined up on stage. After a number of calls, Grenda was next to come forward. Out in the audience, Marius stood up in his seat to blow her a kiss, which she returned in kind. The pageant attendants raised his microphone and read a question off one of the cards he was holding.

"Grenda, what do think is the best way to achieve world peace? And we'll work under the assumption that you can actually do something like that" he said offhandedly.

"Well, for one thing I-". Grenda didn't finish her sentence as it looked as though she about to heave on her own words. Her entire body tensed up and her mouth began to bulge widely, until finally, she released a steady stream of slimy, brown goo down the front of her dress. The slime didn't stop there as it quickly speared all over Grenda's body, wrapping around her like a cocoon that slowly began to swell up, increasing its size and mass. After it had stopped growing, the cocoon shot out two appendages made of slime that were distinctively shaped like arms. At the head of the ball of slime, a pair of eyeballs and wide mouth formed, revealing a wide, ugly face.

Everybody in the audience just stared numbly at the huge, horrific monster Grenda had just turned into, literally too stunned to even respond.

"Ten outta ten!" McGucket yelled, holding up a card, which actually read chicken butt. The new, more monstrous Grenda opened her gaping hole of a mouth and let out a huge roar, which scared everyone out of their seats. She stretched out her tentacle like arms and grabbed a hold of McGucket before tossing him into her mouth, swallowing him whole. Grenda slide off the stage and started chasing after the rest of the people in the crowd

The pageant contestants all dispersed in terror, while Mable and Pacifica stayed together, their eyes fixated on what had happened to Grenda. Hearing the sound of screaming, Dipper ran up to the two of them.

"What's going on?" he asked at sudden commotion

"Grenda's gone nuts and is eating everything!" Mabel screamed.

"So, no different than usual?" Dipper said, still not seeing the issue. He then soon started to see the issue when he looked up and saw Grenda's massive body loom over from behind Mabel. All three kids screamed wildly, breaking into a run before Grenda could catch them. She then started to spit huge globs of slime at them as they ran.

The kids dodged the slime as it came at them and were such a hurry they didn't notice when passed right by Madame Suffrage, who stood transfixed by Grenda's form that was now directly in front of her.

"Such essence, such power….such horror! This is beauty!" And that was Madame Suffarge had to say before Grenda scoped her and ate her.

"Over here dudes" Soos called to the others, from behind an overturned table.

The kids took cover behind the table, keeping out of sight as Grenda continued her rampage. Chunks of slime were still being tossed through the air. One piece hit the wall in front of where Dipper and the others were hiding. From out of the slime, a metal container clattered on the floor next to Dipper's feet.

"What is this?" Dipper asked, picking up the round container.

"Hey, that's my face cream" Mabel said, once she saw it.

"Face cream?"

"Yeah, Soos said somebody sent me that in the mail. I didn't use it because I thought it came from Gideon"

"Well, I think that questions been answered". Dipper wiped some more slime off the piece of paper that was still attached, trying to make out the name scribbled onto it.

"Pulchra?" he said. "Hang on, I think I heard that name somewhere before". Dipper hastily pulled out the Journal and started flipping through the pages until he stopped at a page showing a withered and dead looking tree. "Here it is. The Pulchra tree. After careful study, and one very bad date, I have discovered the rejuvenating properties of the sap taken from the Pulchra tree. Physical skin contact with this substance will cause instant and everlasting beauty to a person"

"Must be a typo" Pacifica said, impatiently, as more slime was thrown overhead

"Wait, there's more on the next page" Dipper continued. "Warning. Never combine the sap with the salvia of a Gremloblin. The resulting mixture will cause a transformation into a giant hideous slime monster. The only known way to reverse this process is with the pollen of a special strain of green spotted white roses which grow only in a select area of the northern woods of Gravity Falls"

Dipper closed the Journal and walked over beside Soos. "Okay. Here's the plan. Soos and I will get the flowers. You two hold the fort here"

Mabel and Pacifica watched as Dipper and Soos retreated to the mall exit, leaving the two of them behind to deal with Grenda's rampage which now sounded like it was taking another turn for the worse behind them. They then shared an uneasy glance of dread at their current circumstance.

* * *

Following directions out of the Journal, Dipper and Soos managed to find their way to a secluded area deep in the woods that seemed to house a wide and strange variety of exotic plants.

"Okay, the flowers should be right around here somewhere" Dipper said. "Just be careful. Some of these plants are carnivorous as well"

Just as Dipper had said this Soos was already in front of a large Venus flytrap like plant. He slowly poked one of his fingers toward the plant, only to pull it away as the plants started snapping like an alligator

"Oh hey, I just thought of something" Soos said, catching back up to Dipper. "If some plants are carnivorous, then the rest are vegetarians. But plants can only get nutrients from other plants, so that's like cannibalism. So that means the plant that eat meat are the real vegetarians"

"There they are" Dipper said, spotting the flowers up ahead. They were sitting isolated in the middle of a small grove, and Dipper could tell they were the roses they needed based on the green spots covering the petals. Dipper also noticed that most of the area surrounding the flowers was covered in what looked like red mushrooms of varying shapes and sizes.

"Hey look dude. Mushrooms" Soos said,

Walking forward, Dipper tip toed through the small field of mushrooms, taking care not to step on any, as for some reason, the mere presence and positioning of the mushrooms seemed to scream at him not to touch one. Dipper was close enough that he was able to grab a hold of the roses by their root. He pulled as hard as he could, plucking a handful of them out from the ground. However, just as Dipper did this, his right foot brushed across one of the mushroom. The mushroom that Dipper touch wobbled slightly, before the top half of it shrivelled itself up.

Soon, the tops of all surrounding the mushrooms shrivelled back into themselves as well in a ripple effect, like a pack sacred animal. They then expanded outward, releasing a large cloud of red dust everywhere. Both Dipper and Soos, coughed as they were bombarded by the particles of dust. After another few seconds, the air cleared away again, with Dipper and Soos looking no worse for wear.

"Ugh" Dipper groaned. He then took a moment to smell the air. "Do you smell that?" he asked Soos.

"Mm smells kinda like cherries, with a hint of chicken" Soos said, sniffing his shirt. "No woman can resist my charm now. I am the ultimate pheromone"

Dipper eyed Soos with a stranger look than usual. "Yeah…. let's get back to the mall

* * *

Dipper and Soos eventually made it back to the mall, which was now practically covered in slime. Many of the people who had been inside that either fled or were in hiding. Grenda could be seen off in the corner, holding a large metal barrel in her hands and hungrily guzzling down its contents

Dipper then spotted Mabel and Pacifica who were hiding behind a table a few feet away from Grenda, watching her as she drank from the barrel.

"Guys we're back" Dipper said

"About time!" Pacifica said angrily. "We're almost out of cheese whiz".

"Ok, we got the flowers" Dipper said, presenting them in one hand. "Now all we need to do is get Grenda to eat them. So we just have to throw them in another barrel of cheese and let her eat it"

"We're actually out of cheese now" Mabel said, despondently. "That was the last barrel"

Dipper briefly lost his earlier momentum, and paused, deflated "Oh. Okay, then somebody needs to get close to Grenda and tried to get her to eat these flowers. Any volunteers?"

"I will go!" called another voice.

Everyone turned their heads to the direction of the voice and found that it belonged to nothing other than Baron Marius. He stepped forward, took the flowers of Dipper and walked out from behind the table, marching up to Grenda's hulking form with a hint of fear or hesitation. Once he was close enough, Marius dropped down on one knee and extended the flowers out to Grenda like a bouquet. Grenda paused in her rampage to take notice of him.

"Grenda my love. I don't know if you can hear me, but please, you must take these flowers and-"

Grenda didn't hesitate to oblige, as she gabbed Marius and gulped him down in one swift motion along with the flowers he was holding. For the first couple of seconds nothing whatsoever happened. Then a slow rumble began emitting from Grenda's gut, the slime along her body rippling like a vat of jelly. As Grenda's body was rippling, it also slowly began to expand outward, swelling up like a balloon until, finally, it popped, spewing the brown sludge that had been Grenda's body, in every direction possible.

Dipper and everyone else, ducked down behind the table or whatever they could find, covering their heads from the rain of slurry. The slime however, now had a distinct orange colour to it and smelled suspiciously like cheese.

Grenda, now back to normal herself, was standing at the epicentre of the explosion, looking blankly confused and covered in the cheesy goo. Marius was lying flat in her arms, groggy and only half conscious.

"Ok, I don't know what happened" she said after a brief look around. "But my rich boyfriend is in my arms and everything is covered in cheese. This is literally my dream come true"

Grenda pulled Marius into a tight embrace and began to make out with him as he happily returned the favour, much to the disgust of Dipper and the others. Now that the danger was over, the crowd slowly gathered back to what remained of the pageant stage. Madame Suffrage, along with everyone else who had been eaten, was lying face first in a pile of cheese, leaving her attendant to address the crowd

"Well, uh, everybody" he said into the microphone. "That was…kinda weird what just happened, but we can go on with the pageant. So the judges have reached a decision". He pulled out a soggy piece of paper and read out the name

"And the winner is…Pacifica Northwest!"

This bit of news took Pacifica by surprise as she had completely forgotten about the pageant until now. She was unceremoniously given a bouquet of flowers and the crown was placed on her head. The applauding crowd quickly surrounded her, cutting her off from Dipper and Mable, despite her own protest. At the far end of the crowd, Pacifica could make out her parents, her father giving her a wink and thumbs up. She then glanced around at Mabel, who hung in head down in disappointment, Dipper giving her a sympathetic pat on her arm. As the crowd kept cheering her name, Pacifica put her hands over her ears, her scowl deepening.

"Everybody, SHUT UP!"

The crowd quickly went silent by her outburst, backing away from her. Pacifica pulled the crown off her head, and threw it to the ground along with the flowers.

"I don't deserve to win, ok?" she said. "I cheated. My pa- I mean, I bribed the judges to let me win, because I didn't want to make myself look bad by losing"

Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, stunned by this piece of news

"Why do we even need some stupid competition to find out who's the cutest little girl in Gravity Falls anyway?" Pacifica continued. "Does being cute and pretty really matter that much? I mean, look at Grenda. She turned into a giant slug monster, teared up the entire mall, is covered in cheese, but somehow she's the one with the rich baron in her arms"

"Got that right!" Grenda yelled in agreement.

"And Candy over there can tell you the square root of six thousand, seven-hundred and twenty-four off the top of her head"

"The answer is eight-two" Candy said.

"And Mabel…" Pacifica looked over to Mabel, who was looking back at her with anticipation, causing her to hesitate a second before speaking.

"Is not really that cute" she finished, with cold shrug. Mabel's face dropped once again, until Pacifica smiled at her.

"In a dress. But nobody could ever outdo her in one of those dorky sweater she wears". At this Mabel smiled broadly, sticking her chest out with confidence at this very true statement

"Every little girl is smart, cute and special in her own unique way. So really….every girl here deserves a crown. I know I say that every year, but this time I actually mean it. Every little girl here does deserve a crown"

The crowd erupted into a joyful applause at Pacifica's speech, while her parents looked on with expressions of pure disbelief. After the crowd died down again, the pageant attendant picked the crown off the ground, still looking as dispassionate as ever.

"Um that's very nice and everything" he said. "But we only have the one crown, so we're gonna have to give it to someone"

"I will buy it!" Marius spoke up from Grenda's arms

"And the winner is Grenda!" The attendant put the crown on her head, and the crowd soon resumed cheering, completely forgetting about Pacifica as they moved over to Grenda, who seemed to be convinced she was dreaming.

"I am totally convinced that I am dreaming!"

As the crown continued to shower Grenda with praise, Pacifica heaved a sigh and slumped her shoulders in exhaustion. She was soon joined by Dipper.

"Great, so having integrity gets you nothing" Pacifica said bitterly

"Pretty much" Dipper replied honestly

"In that case, I think I'll go back to being snobby again"

"Did you really bribe the judges to let you win? Or did your parents?" Dipper asked, only somewhat suspicious.

"Guess it doesn't matter now" Pacifica said with a shrug. "I've won enough of those crowns anyway"

"Well, if it's any consolation, I thought you were the best looking girl" Dipper said.

"R-really" Pacifica said with surprise, a slight blush on her face.

"Well, I-I-I mean it was either gonna b you or Mabel, but she's my twin so that be kinda awkward thing to say, you know, uh law of conservation" Dipper laughed a bit nervously as he scratched his head, avoiding Pacifica's eye. Pacifica laughed as well, and tried to think of a reply, when Mabel abruptly inserted herself right in between the two of the,

"Hey, you know what we should do now?" she said. "Go back home and have some runner up/loser style pancakes! I bet you never had one of those before" Mabel poked Pacifica in the arm

"That's because you only just made it up" Pacifica said. "And I didn't lose, I just didn't let myself win"

"Ah, it's okay Pacifica" Mabel said, with a sympathetic pat on her arm. "We're all losers now. But that just means we can all be losers together". Mabel put her arms around Dipper and Pacifica, pulling them into a hug.

"Mabel I wasn't even in the competition" Dipper said. "So why am I a los-?"

"LOSERS TOGETHER!" Mabel screamed over him, tightening her hold on both of them.

* * *

A couple miles away, the sun had finally set again, dropping a blanket of shadow that covered a familiar looking stone archway, which lead into a familiar looking crypt.

The entrance of the archway was blocked off by a gigantic rock that clearly could not be moved by hand. On the side of the rock, a small spider crawled its way through a tiny crack in-between the rock, entering the cave. It scurried along the walls, down the stairway and finally into the Voltrauss family tomb.

The spider moved across the floor up to the stone coffin in the centre of the room, just as the lid of the coffin slipped off and fell to the floor with a resounding thud. Vincent rose up from inside the coffin and stretched out his arms, yawning loudly. After scratching his back, he looked down and took notice of the spider at his feet.

"Oh your back" he said. "Good. Now, time for some morning television"

As if on cue, the abdomen of the spider split wide open with a loud snap, revealing a massive green eyeball. The eyeball blinked once and then shot out a beam of green light onto the nearest wall. Images of Dipper, Mabel and the events that had taken place mall, all shown from the perspective of the spider's eyes, were now playing out within the makeshift screen exactly like a television set. Vincent moved up closer to the wall, watching the images carefully as they played out.

"Now let's see. Mmm hmmm. Mmm hmmm". The spider's projection then reached the part where Dipper and Soos retrieved the flower, as well how they were sprayed by the mushrooms. At this, Vincent raised his arms in triumph.

"Aha yes it worked!" he said. "Time for the next phase of my plan. Now it's your turn"

Vincent looked over to a darken corner of the room, just as a very loud growling sound began to emit from with the shadows.

* * *

**Hey, I hope everybody got a chance to see the latest GF episode, "A Tale of Two Stans". Don't worry not giving away any spoilers, just letting everyone know how awesome it was if you didn't see it already. Anyway, the new episode has given me a couple new ideas for later one. And eventually this story will concede with the latest episode.**

**Happy to have this chapter over as it partly filler just to set up the events of the next chapter, which hopefully won't be far.**

**So please leave a review, tell me what you think and peace out**


	8. The Barghest

"Ladies, gentlemen and pigs" Mabel declared. "I present to you, Mabel's Special-Ultra-Super-Delicious-Extra-Chewy-Best in the Whole Wide Universe-Pancakes!"

Dipper, Pacifica, Soos and Waddles were sitting around at the kitchen table, and stared blankly at Mabel, who was holding up a stack of her specially made pancakes. Mabel's broad smile faded a little when they didn't give her a warm response.

"Still working on the name" she said.

"How about you just call them your Mabelcakes?" Dipper suggested helpfully.

Mabel's eyes suddenly lit up like a little puppy and gasped so deeply that she might have passed out. "It was so simple" she whispered. "The answer was front of me the whole time!"

Mabel handed out a portion of Mabelcakes to everyone at the table. Soos and Waddles immediately started to dig into their meal, while Dipper and Pacifica regarded the food with more trepidation, before they joined in. And once they did, everyone began to enjoy what they were having.

"These are really good" Pacifica said with her mouth full. "What do put in them?"

"Oh, you know" Mabel said with a shrug, "Sugar, spices, everything nice. And some of my hair"

Everybody except Waddles paused in the middle of their eating and stared at Mabel with disgusted expressions, their mouths still full.

"Blaaaahhh!" Mabel blurted out. "I'm just messing with you. I put pickle juice and some of Waddles Chipackerz in it"

Dipper and Pacifica shared a quick glance and pushed their plates over to Waddles who was more than happy to eat their share. Soos just stared down at his pancakes, picking some up with his fork, before shrugging it and resumed eating

"Remind me why I came here again?" Pacifica asked Dipper

"Because you wanted to hang you with your friends?" Dipper said, wryly

"Right. Because I'm an idiot" she joked.

"Well, if you don't like the food, we could find something else to do? If you want we could-". Dipper got cut off when Mabel literally poured her drink right over Dipper's head from behind him.

"Whoops, my bad" Mabel said in a loud, innocent voice, as it was somehow an accident. "Sorry bout that. I'm just such a klutz!"

Dipper eyed Mabel with an annoyed look, as took off his wet head, trying to rinse it out. Grunkle Stan then walked into the room, dressed in his usual underwear attire. He walked over to the fridge, taking out a can of Pitt Cola and opening it.

"What're we having?" he asked gruffly, sitting down at the table beside Soos and Pacifica.

"Mabelcakes!" Mabel answered, putting a fresh plate in front of Grunkle Stan.

"Oh, sounds patentable" Stan said eagerly. He hungrily started to eat his meal at the table with everyone else, taking an occasional sip of his drink. After a few moments of silence, Stan paused in his chewing and slowly looked down at Pacifica, who was busy texting on her phone. Stan then took another sip of drink and once he did, he spat it out again right into Dipper's face

"What the heck is she doing here?!" Stan demanded, pointing at Pacifica with hostility

"It's okay Grunkle Stan" Mabel said. "We're all friends now!"

"No we're not" Pacifica said bluntly, her eyes down at her phone.

"What, your friends now?" Stan said, sounding surprised. "Since when did that happen?"

"Well, we sorta began, uh, 'not friends' ever since we were at the party at the Northwest Mansion" Dipper explained, wiping the soda off his face.

"There was a party at the Northwest Mansion and I missed it!? " Stan exclaimed, putting his hands on top of his fez in shock. "Oh man, I could have swiped some of the cutlery or pulled out some of the carpet! Why didn't you kids invite me too!?"

"We didn't know where you were" Mabel said sheepishly.

"Come to think of, we don't see you that often anymore" Dipper said with a hint of suspicion. "Where have you been, exactly?

"I've…uhuhuh". Stan's eyes started to dart around nervously. "I've been uh….working out this new insurance scam." Stan said off the top of his head. "Yeah, uh, I'm gonna insure….the…. floor….so if somebody steps on it, I'll get a claim. Hey wait a minute. That could actually work". Stan looked off into space with a fascinated expression as he seriously began to consider his own idea.

Before anybody could say anything in response to Grunkle Stan, a strange thudding sound could be heard from outside that distinctly grew louder and louder. The sound came to head when something very large burst right through the window, shattering the glass pieces and smashing the table to bits as it landed in the room. The force of the impact sent everyone tumbling backwards in different directions to the kitchen floor. Then after everyone collected themselves, they looked up in full view at the thing that had just burst through the window.

The creature looked like a very large wolf, except it had almost no fur, just raw skin. It was close to the size of a small horse, with a straight row of razor sharp teeth across its mouth, with the claws to match. But the most distinguishing feature about the creature was that it had no eyes. Literally no eyes. Instead, it just had two swollen lumps of red flesh were its eyeballs should be.

Nobody in the kitchen moved, not even the beast. It turned its head upward and flared its nostrils as it sniffed through the air profusely. It continued to sniff the air for some scent that only it seemed to be able to detect, until finally, its head settled down in one direction, pointing itself directly at Dipper, who had his back on the ground. Dipper stared back at the huge beast, and figured almost instantly what this meant. The beast unhinged its elongated jaw and roared viciously, taking off into charge, going right for Dipper and no one else.

Dipper began screaming in terror, as that seemed to be his body was letting him do. The monster was just about to land and sink its teeth right into him, when from out of nowhere a chair intercepted its jaw, knocking it away from Dipper. The person who had swung the chair was Grunkle Stan standing right between Dipper and the creature, holding the chair up like a club

"Soos, get the kids out of here. Now!" Stan ordered, not moving one inch. The beast quickly got back up and tried to lunge at Dipper once again, until Stan caught its teeth with the chair. He pushed the chair further into the beast's mouth, as it struggled to break away. Stan glanced back at the others who seemed to be still paralyzed with shock.

"Move!" Stan yelled at them.

"Come on dudes" Soos cried. He picked up Mabel, Pacifica and finally Dipper into his arms and made a break for it out the door, as Stan continued his battle against the monster. With another push, Stan threw the beast back a few feet, pulling the chair out from its mouth.

"Come on, take a piece of me!" Stan taunted, waving the chair like a bat.

The creature looked at Grunkle Stan with its eyeless face. It then began to sniff the air once again. Without warning the beast took off another charge, and jumped on top of Grunkle Stan. It paused for a second to run his nose over his face, before taking off in another run after the others.

Soos and the kids were about to make it to the front door, when the beast jumped up from behind them, going right over their heads and landing at the foot of the door, effectively blocking their path. Soos took one step back, as the beast bared its fangs, looking already to pounce again.

"Everybody split up!" Dipper yelled.

On Dipper's instruction, Soos dropped him, along with Mabel and Pacifica to the floor, where they all took off in different directions. But this didn't seem to matter to the beast, who still had its nose pointed on Dipper. While the girls headed up the stairs, Soos and Dipper ran into the living room. The beast didn't even take a moment to make up its mind, going straight for them.

"Just keep going!" Dipper yelled to Soos. "And whatever happens, don't make the classic chase scene mistake and-". Dipper's foot caught itself under something and he fell to the floor.

"Trip" he finished quietly, as he turned around to see the beast coming for him.

"Oh dude!" Soos screamed

Just as the beast was only a few feet from reaching Dipper, Stan ran into the room and quickly slammed his fist against the wall beside him. A loud clicking sound came out from underneath the floor. In a split second, the floor in the space between Dipper and the creature sprung open into two wooden hatches, that led down into a hole in the ground. The beast, without any eyes, couldn't see the hole it was running toward and just tumbled straight down when it reached it. Once it was inside, Stan grabbed both door and slammed them shut.

"Finally figured which one was the trapdoor" he said with a grin. However, that grin soon disappeared when the beast started to bang at the door from underneath, nearly throwing Stan off. He pressed all his weight onto the door, trying to keep it closed, with Dipper soon joining him in his efforts. Stan and Dipper then jumped out of the way, just as Soos pushed a nearby book shelf onto the trapdoor. Mabel and Pacifica had re-joined the others and contributed by throwing the coffee table on top of the shelf. Soon enough, everyone was piling as much stuff as they could onto the door.

After throwing the fridge onto the pile with everything else they could find, everybody took a moment to catch their breath. The beast could still be heard banging and clawing it's away at the wood, but it didn't seem to have enough strength to break through the door. But that didn't seem to dissuade it, as the pile of junk still kept rattling from underneath.

"Ok" Pacifica spoke first, in the middle of her panting. "So I think this is the part where you use your weird book to tell us what's going on"

Needing no other persuasion, Dipper pulled out the Journal and started to scan it for any information on what this creature was. Eventually Dipper stopped at a page, with an illustration of a four legged dog monster with no eyes

"The Barghest*" Dipper read from the page. "Although this creature is blind, it has a heightened sense of smell and possess an unquenchable urge for Red Cloud Mushrooms. It will endlessly hunt down and devour anything or anyone who marked with the same scent as the mushrooms. I repeat, it will never, _ever _stop hunting until it has the devoured its prey"

"Mushrooms?" Stan repeated. Dipper gasped with an epiphany

"Earlier today, when Soos and I went to get to the flower to save Grenda, we got sprayed by these weird red mushrooms. The scent of them must still be on us and now the Barghest is after me!" Dipper said in a dramatic fashion. He then paused, before glancing at Soos, a little abashed. "Oh and Soos too I guess"

Soos lifted up his arm and took a whiff from under his armpit. "Come to think it, I don't usually smell this good for too long"

"So we just need to get rid of the smell?" Pacifica said.

Just as she said this, Mabel somehow had produced a bucket of water and splashed it over Dipper's head. Dipper stood where he was, now soaking wet with a deadpanned expression, before he continued reading from the book.

"The scent of the mushrooms cannot be removed by water" he said dryly. "Or any normal cleansing methods as the dust particles permanently latch themselves onto anything they touch, so the smell will never fade away."

"Well does the book at least say how to beat the Beagle thing or whatever?" Mabel asked.

Dipper flipped the page again. "The Barghest cannot be defeated"

Everyone in the room heaved a collective groan at this bit of news. Dipper moved down to another passage at the bottom of the page.

"The only chance of survival against it is to remove all traces of the smell molecules and the only way do that is to use the cleansing pheromones, extracted from the wings of a Purgonidae butterfly"

"So we just need a butterfly then?" Pacifica said.

Dipper turned the page yet again. "Unfortunately the species has gone extinct"

Everybody groaned once again.

"Hang on" Dipper said. He reached into his pocket and pulled only his black light. He turned it on and when the light hit the pages, it revealed the secret text written in invisible ink, which Dipper read out.

"Although the butterfly is gone, I managed to recover one last sample of its pheromone and have hidden it within one of the safes at the bunker". Dipper shot his head up and turned to face Mabel, who had the exact same thought as he did.

"The bunker!" they said simultaneously.

"That's it" Dipper said. "The bunker that we found. The antidote we need is there"

"Wait, what bunker?" Stan asked with a sudden interest.

"We found this bunker that used to belong to the guy that wrote Dipper's Journal" Soos answered innocently. He then looked at Dipper and Mabel, who gave him throat cutting gesture. "Oh I mean….none of those things I just said

"You kids went into a dangerous bunker?" Stan exclaimed. He then turned to Dipper with an accusing glare. "You promised me you'd stop messing around with all these crazy mystery stuff"

"Uh yeah, well um….these things sorta have a way of finding us, you know?" Dipper laughed nervously. Stan didn't look the least bit amused by this, giving Dipper a stern look.

"What else have you been getting up to?"

"Nothing" Dipper said, avoiding Stan's eye. He started to rub his arm awkwardly. "Except maybe…some ghosts…and vampires…."

Dipper looked up at Stan again, who's glowered down at him with a cold gaze.

"Alright fine" he said. "Just go get whatever you need to get and I'll keep this thing here"

Dipper nodded in confirmation and was about to leave, when Stan put a firm hand on his shoulder, turning him around to look at him dead in the eye.

"And afterwards" Stan said in a tone more serious than what he usually displayed. "I'm doing what I should have done at the beginning of this summer. I'm taking that Journal away from you". Stan pressed his finger into Dipper's chest and moved almost nose to nose with him. "For good"

Once Stan released him, Dipper numbly backed a couple of feet away, realising that this sounded like a promise Grunkle Stan was going to keep this time.

"Come on" Mabel said, pulling Dipper out of his thoughts. "Let's go already".

Dipper gave another glance to Grunkle Stan, who was still giving him the no more nonsense look.

"Right" Dipper said, trying not to sound unnerved as he felt, followed behind Mabel.

After the others had gone, Stan turned back to the pile of junk that was still shaking violently. "I was fine with the pig, the goat and with Soos. But I draw the line with pet's right here"

* * *

**The Barghest is actually a real legendary creature, that takes the form of a black dog or in some cases a goblin or elf. I sorta made up the partabout it being blind, just to go along with what I was doing.**

**So hope you liked the chapter. Please leave a review if you can and peace out.**


	9. Back into the Bunker

Journeying into the woods, Dipper and the others reached the metal tree that erected out of the huge man made hole in the ground. Coming up to edge, they spotted the same spiral staircase of wooden planks which would lead them down into the mysterious bunker they had explored, not so long ago.

"Just as creepy as the last time we were here" Dipper said, taking the first step onto the stairs.

"So you have been here before?" Pacifica said, following close behind Dipper.

"Yeah. Me, Mabel, Soos and Wendy came down here to look for some of the Author's secrets"

"It's not like…. dangerous or anything down here, is it?" Pacifica asked tentatively, as she looked around the interior

"Oh no. It was pretty sweet" Soos said, walking behind Pacifica. "We found a bunch of Smez dispensers down here. Oh and there was also this shapeshifting monster that tried to kill us". Soos chuckled and jabbed Pacifica with his elbow. "Bet you wish hadn't started to hang out with us now huh?"

After reaching the bottom of the stairs, the group found themselves in the familiar bomb shelter then had explored. Still in front of the others, Dipper turned about face to address them.

"Ok, we need to fan out and look for the safe. Looks like it'll be marked by this symbol". Dipper opened out the Journal, showing everything the glyph to watch out for, illumined by his black light. He then pulled out three walkie-talkies from his backpack. "Now I brought some walkie-talkies for each of us so we can call each other if there's trouble. And please" Dipper held one of the walkie-talkies just out of Mabel's reach before she could take it. "Do not lose it in a bet"

"My gambling days are behind me" Mabel said assuredly. Satisfied Dipper gave her the walkie-talkie

"I thought you said there was a shape shifter down here?" Pacifica said testily, as she took her own walkie-talkie from Dipper.

"Don't worry, we locked that up in a cryogenic chamber. We have nothing to worry about, unless he escaped. Again"

"Oh my God. Dudes what if I'm the shape shifter?" Soos said in a panic. "Would I even realise it? Am really I Soos? What do I know about Soos? Quick Pacifica what's my favourite colour?"

"I don't know" she replied coldly.

"Neither do I! Is it red? Camouflage? " Soos cried with despair and dropped to his knees, looking down at his hands. "What am I?!"

"Okay, calm down" Dipper said wearily. "We'll spilt up into pairs. That way nobody can get impersonated in case the shape shifter broke out again. So Mabel, you go with Soos and I'll go with Pacifica"

"I want to go with Pacifica". Mabel abruptly positioned herself right beside Pacifica, just as Dipper was about to move next to her.

"Uh, ok" Dipper said. "Why?"

"Because…uh… " Mabel waved her hands indeterminably. "This… way its girls and the boys together! What, you think we can't take care of ourselves? That we can't go anywhere without some macho guys to look after us? What do you think this is? 1957?!" Mabel started poking Dipper in the chest, suddenly becoming very aggressive.

"We don't need your sexism. Come on Pacifica". Mabel closed her eyes and stuck her chin up in a condescending manner toward Dipper. She then pulled Pacifica to her own shoulder and dragged her off, ignoring the look of incredulity she was giving her. Dipper was now left alone with Soos in the room.

"You know what dude, I'm actually glad the girls are gone. Now I can scratch myself inappropriately without feelings of self-consciousness". Soos lived up to his word and started going to town, much to Dipper displeasure

* * *

After leaving the others, Mabel and Pacifica explored another room in the back of bomb shelter that was filled to the brim with file cabinets and stacks of old papers. Going in different directions, they both started to search for might be a safe or even a clue that would point to it.

"So… Pacifica." Mabel asked, convincingly nonchalant, her hands behind her back. "I was just wondering, how do like hanging out with me and Dipper?"

"Oh it's great" Pacifica said with the utmost sarcasm, as she shuffled through some old scraps of paper. "Especially with all the monster wanting to eat us"

"Well it's not always monster. Sometimes its gnomes. And one time there was a merman. That I kissed" Mabel added, with a smug grin.

"You kissed a merman?" Pacifica said with a skeptical grin.

"Oh yeah" Mabel replied, her eyes closed. "And I once kidnapped the entire band of Sev'ral Times, who by the way are actually genetically engineered clones. Oh yeah, I've been places"

Pacifica eyed Mabel strangely for a moment. "You know, if I hadn't found out that there were little golf ball people living inside a mini golf course, I probably I'd just scoff at you for being nuts"

"Yeah, heh" Mabel chuckled lightly. She rubbed the back of her neck with her hand, before speaking again. "So I kinda wanted to ask, do like, like me now or what?"

Pacifica seemed to think about this for a moment. "Well you're still the weirdest person I have ever met. Like super freaky weird. But you're also a lot of fun"

"So, what do think about my brother? I mean just as a person you know" Mabel added quickly.

"Well, he's a total dork" Pacifica said. "I mean, seriously. A huge dork. And fat headed. And he's so uptight. I mean, he'd rather be solving mysteries than having fun"

"Oh, don't I know it" Mabel chuckled knowingly.

Pacifica chuckled as well, but then cast her eyes down a little shyly. "Yeah. But he's also like really brave, and adventurous and super honest too. And he doesn't give people any respect unless they really deserve it"

"But he's still a huge dork right!?" Mabel said overzealously poking Pacifica in the arm. "I mean, did you know he wrote his own theme song and sings it while he's in the shower? Dork alert!" Mabel honked her hand up in the air. Then came a small static noise from her back pocket. She reached down and pulled out the walkie-talkie that transmitted Dipper's voice into the room.

"Mabel. It's Dipper. Soos and I found the safe. Meet us down inside the hidden laboratory"

* * *

"Ya comfortable in there Scooby?" Stan asked out loud, in the direction of the trapdoor, as he was smugly relaxing in his armchair watching the TV screen. "Sorry pooch, but you ain't going nowhere. That's real oak wood there." Stan chucked tauntingly, as he changed the channel again.

"You know, maybe I ought to keep you around?" he said, soundly mildly professional. "You'd be the best attraction for the Mystery Shack since that jar of leprechaun hair that I said was lucky. Was one of the best money makers I had too, till that midget in the green suit showed up. Man, do the Irish get violent. But anyway, was just making a suggestion. You might not be so bad. You're pretty quiet actually"

Stan stared down at the trapdoor, still buried underneath the mountain of junk which was keeping it in place, but strangely enough, not one piece of it was shaking anymore.

"Real quiet" Stan said slowly, his face turning to a frown with realization. He hadn't heard any banging sound from under the floor for almost a half hour. Getting out of his seat, he moved over to the trap door and tapped at it with his foot. Nothing happened. He got down on his knees and knocked on the wood a few times, but there was still no response. Starting to feel panicked, Stan moved the shelf and other objects off the trapdoor, and opened the lid. But instead of a huge set of jaws trying to bite him in the face, all that was underneath the trapdoor was freshly dug hole that went right into the ground.

"Oh no" Stan whispered, with more fear than he usually showed.

* * *

Mabel lead the way, as she and Pacifica entered the bunker's hidden laboratory. Dipper and Soos were standing at one side of the cavern. They were opposite the cryogenic chambers they had used to trap the shape shifter the last time they had been there. On the ground beside Dipper was a cluster of rocks that looked like they were made out of cardboard

"You found the safe" Mabel asked Dipper, stopping beside him.

"This section of the wall here was fake" he explained. "I noticed that the colour and formation of the wall didn't match up to the rest of the cave, like it was worn or something. We pulled it off and found this"

Built into the rocky wall was a cabinet of small metal safes, each with a dial and handle. They were lined up in four by four sets of columns and rows. But what was most interesting was that every safe was already opened and the contents, if there had been any, were gone. All except for one safe in the middle row.

"This is the only safe not opened and the only one marked with the symbol. But we can't get inside it without the combination"

"Oh don't worry. It'll be easy dudes. We just gotta use process of elimination". Soos turned the dial to one degree and tried to open the door, but nothing happened. "That's one". He turned again to the next degree, but still no luck. "That's another. And another. And another. We'll get there eventually"

After giving Soos the usual sympathetic look of pity, Dipper pulled out the Journal. "Hmm, the combination must be here somewhere" he mumbled, scanning the pages intently. "Give me a second"

"Step aside". Pacifica pushed Dipper out of her way and strolled up to the safe. She clicked her fingers expectantly and like a trained dog, Soos got down on all fours, offering himself as a step ladder so that Pacifica could reach the safe. Once she stepped up to be level with the safe, she cracked her fingers and neck, warming herself up. She pressed her ear up against the metal door of the safe, turning the dial a few degrees in one direction, then the other and then, she spun the dial around very fast, before stopping it on a random spot. She then knocked on the door with her knuckles three times in three different locations. A second later, there was a small clicking sound and the safe door swung wide open.

"Piece of cake" Pacifica said, hopping off Soos

"You can crack a safe?" Dipper said, sounding impressed.

"I've got like 200 hundred safes in my house. That was nothing" Pacifica said, not even pretending to be humble.

Inside of the safe, was a glass vial sitting on a small pedestal. The vial was full of a purple liquid and on the side of it was a worn sicker, which read, 'Purgonidae butterfly'. There was nothing inside the safe, save for a few scraps of paper.

"This is it!" Dipper said jubilantly. "We found it"

Dipper was about to grab a hold of the vial when it suddenly began to wobble on its own without him even touching it. For a second, Dipper was so taken by surprise, he didn't know what to do, but before he could make up his mind, the vial levitated itself up into the air and went flying right over his head. It flew right across to the other end of the room, where it was caught by a pale grey hand.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" Vincent said, standing in front of the entrance, delicately balancing the vial on one finger

"V-Vincent!?" Dipper exclaimed, flabbergast at the sight of him. "Y-y-you're alive, I mean still…ah….living…. undead? I'm not sure what the correct adjective is!"

"It's okay, you can say alive if you want" Vincent replied.

"But-but-but how did you…? We saw you get burned to dust!"

"Let's just say I take precautions" Vincent said, tossing the vial up and down in the air. "But it's good to see you again, Dipper, Mabel. And I see you brought friends. The fat guy. And…" Vincent paused, waving his hand at Pacifica. "Whoever you are"

Pacifica gave Vincent an indignant look in return. "I'll have you know, I'm Pacifica Nor-"

"Don't care(1)" Vincent said curtly, already beginning to ignore Pacifica, who was turning red at being stubbed

"But how did you even know about this place?" Dipper asked. "Did you follow us here?"

"I've been here before" Vincent said and now seemed to be enjoying giving repeatedly cryptic answers. "And I knew you'd be coming here for the serum ever since I unleashed the Barghest on you"

"You unleashed it?" Dipper said, with increasing confusion and shock. He then widened his jaw when everything came together in his mind. "It was you! You sent Mabel the Pluchra sap! You did it so that one of us would get sprayed by the mushrooms, so then we'd have to find the butterfly serum to save ourselves! This was all a trap!"

"Well thanks for monolouing my plan for me" Vincent said, conceitedly. "Now down to business. So I have something you want. And you have something I want". The vial moved upwards to hovering right above Vincent's head. "So how about you hand the Journal over to me?"

"No way!" Dipper vehemently refused. "We're not gonna give in to-". Dipper's voice got cut off when a huge crashing sound could be heard from the room above them, followed by a string of angry growls and then a hungry roar, all of which sounded as if it was drawing closer

"By the sound of it, you don't have a lot of time to make up your mind" Vincent taunted. "Being hunted by a horrible monster is one thing. Being cornered in an underground bunker, with only one exit, that I'm currently blocking and with said monster on its way….well that does sound like a pretty good trap"

Dipper gulped in terror, realising that they were indeed trapped. He glanced wildly around the room, looking for an exit, trying desperately to think of another way out this situation

"Dipper, just give him the book!" Mabel urged.

"Mabel, I can't. We don't know what he wants it for"

"It doesn't matter if you give it up or not" Vincent said. "I could just use my power to pull it out of your hands from way over here if I wanted to. But I'm giving you a chance to save yourself here. So what will it be?"

Dipper stared down the Journal, tightening his grip on the edges, still feeling reluctant to give it up, partly because of its value to him and partly out of the fear of what Vincent was planning to do with it. Knowing that there was no other way, Dipper was just about to give in, when Mabel suddenly seized the Journal and forcefully yanked it out of his hands. She then ran over to Vincent and thrust the book toward him.

"Here!" she snapped at Vincent. "Just take it and give me the stuff to save Soos and my brother!"

Vincent didn't immediately try to take the Journal. He just stood where he was and stared at Mabel with a curious expression, his mouth hanging open slightly. For some reason, her gesture seemed to have momentarily dumbfounded him. But whatever it was, it soon passed away. Vincent snatched the Journal away from Mabel, with a covet expression. He paused for a moment as he rubbed his hand over the cover.

"Finally" he whispered.

"Now give me that vial!" Mabel said angrily.

Vincent lowered the vial down into his hand and looked back forward between it and Mabel. For a second, it looked though Vincent was considering to just smash it, but after seeing the resolute look in Mabel's eye, he tossed the vial to her, with no nefarious intent.

"Well this has been fun". Vincent turned around and made his way to the exit. "But if I were you, I'd use that stuff up right now. I'd say you only have a few seconds left till the Barghest gets here"

There came a loud crash, when the metal door burst off its hinges, and the Barghest beast landed into the room with an echoing thud.

"Make that zero seconds" Vincent finished amusedly. "Have fun". He calmly walked around the Barghest which clearly had no interest in him, giving another glance back at Dipper and the others as he waved his hand in goodbye.

"Mabel" Dipper said a hushed whispered. "Don't make any sudden moves! Just walk slowly back to me"

Mabel took one slow step backwards, but this was enough to set the Barghest off. It sprinted forward, knocking into Mabel, which caused her to fall to the ground, the vial slipping out of her hands and rolling along the floor. It stopped just a few yards away from Dipper's feet. He reached out to grab it, but pulled himself back, just as the Barghest stepped over the vial and slowly paced its way toward Dipper.

Dipper, along with Soos and Pacifica slowly back up, until their backs were literally up against the wall.

"Should we split up again?" Soos suggested fearfully.

"It won't matter" Dipper replied. "We know it'll only come after-Wait a second." Dipper paused in thought, as his brain went to work again. "Soos stand over there!" he instructed, pointing to one end of the room.

Soos did as Dipper ordered and hurriedly skidded over to the left side of the room. The Barghest followed Soos with its nose and looked it might have chased after him, when Dipper then ran to stand at the right side of the room, next to the cryogenic chambers, and waved his hands up in the air.

"Hey you! Over here!" he yelled toward the beast. The Barghest turned its nose in Dipper's direction, but then turned again when Soos started to wave his own hands.

"No, over here!" The Barghest was now turning back and forward between the two ends of the room, its nose flaring like crazy.

"It can't make up its mind. It can't go after us both at the time same time!" Dipper said triumphantly.

The beast walked around in a circle a few times, still unable to make up its mind. It finally came to a stop, standing a perfectly equal distance in between Dipper and Soos. The Barghest lifted its head and started to shake its head in a very strange manner. A line suddenly appeared down the middle of the Barghest head, splitting the head in two symmetrical halves. The line deepened itself, as the two halves of the Barghest head seem to pull away from each other, until finally they broke apart with a loud snap. For a brief second, the Barghest had now taken on two identical and fully shaped head onto its neck. The line that separated the heads continued on down the beast spin, growing wider and wider, until the Barghest literally split into two exact duplicates of itself, in a freakish display of cellular mitosis. Now, the two Barghests, turned in opposite directions, one pointed at Dipper, the other at Soos

"Did you know it could do that?" Pacifica squeaked out loud.

"I'll add it to the Journal" Dipper said in a state of calm shock. "If I ever get it back…..and if we live through this"

In perfect synchronisation, the two Barghest's attacked, one chasing Soos into one side of the room, the other chasing Dipper over to the cryogenic chambers.

Pacifica, who was the only one left, ran into the middle of the room and picked up the vial. She glanced in-between both Dipper and Soos.

"Which should I give it to first?" she said in panic.

"Pacifica, give it to Soos!" Dipper shouted

"No don't" Soos shouted back. "Give it to Dipper first!"

Pacifica looked around desperately, going from Dipper, Soos and to the vial in her hands. She looked over at Dipper, who gave her a steady gaze in return.

"Pacifica, just help Soos first. I'll be okay"

"But…" she began. Dipper gave her another scared, yet firm look.

"Just trust me! I'll be okay"

Pacifica looked at him again, before she nodded in confirmation and took off in Soos' direction. She found him running around in a complete circle, the Barghest right on his heels.

Pacifica reached into her pocket and took out a small bottle of perfume. She uncorked the lid and emptied its contents to the floor. She then opened the vial, poured the serum inside and then screwed the lid back on. Soos then came to stop just as he ran into a corner, the Barghest now closing in.

"Okay, I know what you're thinking dude" he said, raising his hands up in defence as the Barghest drew closer." 'Should I eat Soos?'. Well if you just listen for a second, I can give you at least six different reason why you shouldn't. Number one-"

The Barghest didn't give Soos a chance to finish. It pounced on top of him and pinned him to the ground with his massive paws. It snarled viciously, showing off every one of its teeth.

But just before it took a bite out of Soos, Pacifica picked up a small rock off the ground and threw it at the beast head, hitting it on the bridge of its nose. While the Barghest was briefly stunned, Pacifica rushed down to Soos and sprayed the serum all over him using the perfume bottle. A moment later, the Barghest was locked onto Soos again, but then paused as it ran its nose all over Soos' body. It then pulled away, apparently losing all interest. Both Soos and Pacifica sighed in relief, but this didn't last long, when the Barghest started to sniff the air again, and then ran back toward where they had left Dipper.

On the other side of the cavern, Dipper had run in behind the cryogenic chambers, hoping to give himself shelter. But it didn't seem to be working well. The Barghest was digging and scraping its claws relentlessly though any gap it could find in between the machines, trying to reach Dipper.

Dipper clambered up through a web of wires and tubes, trying to gain as much distance as he could, until the beast managed to squeeze its way through the chambers and advanced on Dipper, snapping its jaws. Dipper narrowly avoided one of its bites, which sank right into one of the rubber coiled tubes connected to the cryogenic machines. It tore the tube out, releasing a spray of cold mist, which only have been liquid nitrogen, into the air.

In the confusion, Dipper vaulted out from the machines and tried to make a run for it, only for the Barghest bite down into the tip of his back pack and throw him back into the side of one of the chambers. Dipper shook his head with a daze and looked up just in time to see the Barghest standing right above him, its mouth open wide

"Get away from my brother!"

Mabel jumped onto the back of the Barghest, climbing up behind its neck. The Barghest backed away from Dipper, and shook its head around, trying to throw Mabel off, who was holding on like a bull rider. Holding to the beast's neck with just her legs, Mabel pulled off her sweater and wrapped it around the Barghest nose.

The Barghest shook again and managed to throw Mabel off, who landed beside Dipper. The Barghest now started to scarp its front paws over its nose, trying to pull off the sweater. Seeing the creature's momentarily incapacitation and then the coil that was still spraying out the liquid nitrogen, Dipper formed an idea.

He grabbed the tube and ran right up to the Barghest. He pushed the rubber coil as far down into the monster's mouth as his arm could go, jamming it into the side. Dipper then pulled his arm out just the beast recoiled back as the liquid nitrogen began pouring down its throat. The Barghest thrashed around in a mad frenzy, groaning in pain. Eventually, however, it whole body slowly froze up and then a second later it turned a pale white colour, as a membrane of ice form over its skin. Dipper and Mabel stared at the monster, which had literally just turned into a giant ice sculpture. Then turned to each other and let out a small laugh of disbelief.

But this was short lived. The frozen Barghest got smashed to pieces, when the second one plowed right through it and was now standing in the exact same position its predecessor had just been in.

Dipper and Mabel latched on tightly to each other, screaming their lungs out at the huge mouth of razor sharp teeth came speeding toward them. But the second before it reached them, a loud rumble sound came from above and was then followed by an avalanche of rocks which rained down right on top of the remaining Barghest, burying it underneath the heap of rubble with a loud boom that echoed throughout the cave.

It was then Dipper and Mabel stopped their screaming. They looked over the pile of rocks that had just saved their lives, half expecting the beast to burst right out and attack them again, but the debris was unmoving.

* * *

Leaving the lab and climbing back up the stairs, the group immediately sank down into the grass, physically exhausted beyond words. Dipper in particular looked exceptionally miserable, even after he had been given some of the serum.

"Dipper, you okay?" Mabel asked him.

"No, I'm not okay" he said bitterly, his head in his hands. "Mabel, Vincent got the Journal. He set all this up and he beat us. He completely outsmarted us."

"Dipper, the important thing is that we made it out alive" Mabel said. "Doesn't that matter?"

"Yeah, I know" he sighed. "But I don't know what's gonna happen next. Vincent has the Journal now and he could be planning anything with it."

"Look, whatever it is, whatever he's up to, will face it together. We beat him once, we can do it again" Mabel said, putting a reassuring hand on Dipper's shoulder.

"So what if he out smarted you this time?" Pacifica said, sounding slightly less sympathy, "Big deal. You can beat him next time. I mean, you are up for it aren't you?"

Both Mabel and Pacifica's comments helped bring a smile back to Dipper's face, already beginning to feel his spirits lifting.

"So what do we do now dudes?" Soos asked.

"There's only one thing to do now" Dipper said, standing up to full height. "We're gonna have to find the other Journals. We need to figure what Vincent is up to and find a way to stop it. Finding the other two Journals is out best bet"

Unbeknownst to anyone, up in the trees above, Vincent was hiding up behind in the canopy where no one could see, Journal#3 clutched under his arm. He had been patiently waiting to see if the kids had escaped. He smiled in delight as he listened to Dipper's proposal, everything going just as he had planned.

"That's right. Find me those Journals" he said. Vincent looked away from Dipper and took a moment to admire his new acquired Journal. "And when I finally have everything that I need, this town will never see the sun again"

* * *

**Well that was a long one. Hope everyone enjoyed it and the next chapter should be soon enough. The story is starting to take off a bit quicker now. Next chapter Dipper and Mabel will be meeting with an old friend again.**

** 1\. Didn't want to give too much away yet, but Vincent is actually familiar with the Northwest family. Let's just say it's not a good history.**

**So thanks for reading, please leave a review if you can, since I enjoy people telling me what they think of the story so far, even if it's just criticism. Peace out**


	10. The Return of Gideon

"Dipper, are you sure about this?" Mabel asked her brother, as the two of them were escorted down the hallway by the heavily armed guards.

"There's no other choice Mabel" he replied as they came up to the security door. "He's the only other person who knows about the Journals"

"But what if he uses some creepy criminal mastermind psychology stuff to trick us and then feed us to a bunch of wild warthogs?" Both Mabel and Dipper held their arms up as they were scanned by the metal detectors. Once cleared, they continued down the next hallway.

"Don't worry, he's completely locked up" Dipper assured her. "He can't do anything to us now. We just need to finesse the info out of him". They came to the next security checkpoint. The guard behind the glass made the call to process them through.

"Okay. You be the good cop, I'll be the bad cop". Mabel punched her fist into her hands and cracked her knuckles fiercely, although a second later she was rubbing her hands in pain.

"Or…" Dipper began slowly. "How about I be the world class, ace detective and you be my clever canine partner who sniffs out clues"

Mabel seemed to be happy with Dipper's proposal. She folded her hands down and tilted her head upwards, with her tongue hanging out as she made a small 'ruff-ruff' sound.

Once they passed the last checkpoint, Dipper and Mabel entered the visitors section of the prison. And sitting on the other side of the glass booth was Gideon Gleeful, who looked particularly gleeful to see the twins again.

"Well, oh me, oh my. Dipper and Mabel Pines!" he said brightly. "What a delight"

Dipper and Mabel walked up to the glass booth and took a seat opposite Gideon. Both of them were looking at him with hostility, with Mabel growling like a guard dog.

"Now it has been such a long time since I last saw you two" Gideon said, still with an air of pleasantry. "I can't remember the last time all three of us were together like this. Oh wait I remember now. It was when YOU TWO HAD ME INCARCERATED IN THIS DECREPIT, ROTTEN CESSPOOL OF A PRISON!"

Gideon nearly went right through the glass booth as he jumped up in his chair. Everyone else in the room noticed his outburst as well and the guards were now eyeing him with caution. Gideon then paused, looking around the fearful stares everyone was giving him.

"…That has some of the finest cuisine I have ever dined upon" Gideon finished, giving everyone a warm smile. He settled back into his seat and addressed Dipper and Mabel once again.

"Now what do you want?" he growled, instantly dropping his innocent facade.

"We just wanted to ask you some questions" Dipper said.

"And you better tell us the truth" Mabel warned him dangerously. "A lot of stuff can happen in a prison. Who knows? If you're not too careful, you might wake up one morning and find that somebody has stolen your toothbrush and used it scrub their armpits!"

Now it was Mabel's turn to get all the weird stares in the room. Dipper cleared his throat and gestured for his sister to sit back in her seat.

"Oh my dear Mabel" Gideon said longingly, caressing the glass between them. "How I have missed hearing the sound of your sweet, sweet voice these long cold nights. I pray the day my soon come when I can sniff your hair again"

"Yup. Looks like its nightmares again tonight" Mabel said with a straight face.

"Okay here's the deal Gideon" Dipper said, trying to retake control of the conversation. "We need to know whatever it is that you know about the Journals"

"The what-now?" Gideon said, feigning ignorance. "Oh wish I could help you Dipper, but these long, hard days in prison have left me in such a withered state. My memory just isn't what it used to be"

"We don't have time for games here. There's this evil vampire on the loose and he has my Journal. We have to find the others before he does"

"You lost your Journal you say?" Gideon said, now sounding interested. "And to a vampire no less. Well that is a pity. Maybe if you had left that Journal in the hands of someone who is truly capable of wielding its power, you wouldn't be coming here, begging me for my help"

"We're not begging you" Dipper said coldly.

"We could try if that'll help?" Mabel suggested.

"You said you wanted Jounarl#1 from us and you already took Jounral#3" Dipper continued. "So that means you must have had the second one"

"I may have" Gideon answered playfully.

"Where is it?"

"Unfortunately, I no longer have it in my possession. It must have been either lost or destroyed when my robot exploded" he said, sounding bitter.

"So, you're saying it's gone for good now?"

"Perhaps" Gideon said precariously.

"If you've got nothing to offer us" Dipper said, getting up to leave. "Then we'll just-"

"Wait" Gideon said quickly. "The original may be gone, but I may have in fact been inclined to save the Journal's information on a separate flash drive for just such an emergency and that flash drive is yours for the taking. You just have to do one Li'l ol' thing for Li'l ol' me" he said sweetly. He bent down closer to the glass, gesturing at Dipper to do the same. Dipper edged his ear up to the glass, as Gideon dropped his voice down to a whisper.

"You tell everyone that Stanford set me up for my crimes as malicious prank and get me out of this place!"

"No deal" Dipper replied, pulling away from the glass

"Then I'm not giving you anything!" Gideon said, raising his voice again, slamming his hands on the booth. "You'll never find that flash drive. Just like you'll never figure out the real secrets of this town"

"I know one thing that's not a secret" Dipper said smugly. "You won't be getting out of here anytime soon. Come on Mabel". The two of them got up to leave, with Mabel giving Gideon one last growl.

"You think you can do this by yourself Dipper?" Gideon called at them as they left. "Sooner or later, your luck will run out. And when it does you'll lose everything you care about. Your home, your friends. Your sister" he finished with a sinister smile. Dipper paused just as he was about to follow Mabel out the door.

"You think you can live with what will happen if you fail boy?"

Dipper remained where he was, but he still kept his back to Gideon. Without so much as a glance, Dipper continued walking forward and closing the door behind, not giving Gideon any kind of satisfaction as he was escorted back to his cell. But after everyone had left the room, no one noticed the small, green eyed spider huddled up in the top corner of the ceiling, having just seen the entire exchange between the twins and Gideon.

* * *

"The nerve of those Pine twins" Gideon muttered to himself, pacing up and down his cell later that night. "Coming here, asking me for _my_ help, after they put me in here. Well, we'll soon see." Gideon moved over to his small table, pulled out his pen and paper, and started to write his next letter.

"Soon Dipper Pines. Very soon" he spoke out loud, as he wrote down his own words. "The day will come when I am outside these walls and then my vengeance will rain down upon you like a hundred-no, make that a thousand fiery arrows! No, wait, that sounds too ostentatious." He scribbled out the previous line. "Just a hundred. Prepare yourself Dipper. Watch as everyone and everything you hold dear comes crashing down asunder, and your whole world shall be split in twine!"

"Actually, I think the correct pronunciation is 'to split in twain'".

"Oh my goodness, you're right" Gideon said, seeing his mistake and correcting it. "Thank you kindly". Gideon was about to continue writing, when he only just realised that somebody inside of his empty cell had just spoken to him. Dropping his pen, he stood and did a full sweep across the room, seeing no one. He backed up to stand right underneath the window, the moonlight shining inside. But when he looked down at the floor, he noticed a shadow looming over him. Gideon turned around and saw a grey skinned kid in a dark cloak was literally floating outside the bars of his window, looking directly at him

"Ahhhh! Who are you!?" Gideon screamed with fear.

"Friends call me Vincent" he answered. The bars on Gideon's window started to creak loudly as they were forcefully bent sideways, creating a gap large enough for Vincent to squeeze straight through. Once he had entered the room, floated down to the floor and stood opposite Gideon, who was eyeing the newcomer with caution.

"So you must be the vampire that Dipper was talking about" Gideon said, quickly recomposing himself as he looked over Vincent. "Why are you here?"

"Earlier today, Dipper and Mabel Pines came here to visit you" Vincent answered, walking over to the bars of the cell. "I want to know why"

"How do you know about that?" Gideon asked with suspicion. "Vampires can't come out in daylight"

"It helps to have an extra set of eyes. But unfortunately, I don't have an extra set of ears. Now tell me, what were you talking about with them? They already told you about me, didn't they?"

"They did, but I can't seem to recall the exact context of the conversation. Must have slipped my Lil'ole mind" he said innocently, putting on a sweet expression. Vincent however, was not the least bit impressed by Gideon's charm.

"Did what they say have something to do with this?" Vincent reached into his cloak pulled out Journal#3, displaying in front of Gideon, who went slack jawed by the sight of it.

"The Journal!" he gasped. "Give it to me!" Gideon greedily reached out to grab it, just as Vincent pulled it away again.

"Slow down, shorty" he said, storing the Journal back into his cloak. "You don't know what've been through to get my hands on this book. And now I need to know where the others are"

"I see" Gideon said, becoming more serious. "Dipper made a similar proposal today. Let's see if I give you the same answer I did him. You want the other Journals? Then you get me out of this prison"

"First things first" Vincent said, leaning up against one of the walls. "Tell me what you do know about the Journals. Do know where Journals 1 and 2 are?"

"I only had Jounarl#2 and Dipper had number 3" Gideon explained. "But the second Journal was taken from me after I was arrested. Luckily I anticipated a scenario where I may lose possession of my Journal, so I copied its information onto a flash drive and kept it in a safe location. And that location is locked away right up here".

Gideon tapped the side of his head confidently. "The only way for you to get it, is to get me what I want. And that is my freedom"

Vincent didn't seem to be listening to Gideon, as he scratched his chin absently. He then threw his hands up in the air, trying to hide his grin. "Oh well, you're right" he said in a half-hearted resignation of defeat. "There's definitely no _other_ way I can the information from you. So suppose I'll _have_ to get you out of here. For a price"

"What price?" Gideon asked.

"You see, I need…well what you could call an ally, if you will" Vincent said, folding his hands together in a business-like manner. "In order to fulfil my plans, I need someone to do a couple of tasks for me during the day, while I'm asleep. So how about this? I bust you out, you get me the second Journal, help me find the last one and then just run a couple little errands for me"

"Mmm an alliance you say" Gideon whispered softy, taping his fingers rhythmically. "Intriguing. But the last time I made a deal with a supernatural entity, he couldn't live up to his end of the bargain. And I don't subjugate myself to anyone. I plan to have all three Journals for myself and unlocked the secret to ultimate power!"

"That's fine. Ultimate power, yay great" Vincent said with a passive smile. "But I need the Journals too. Once we find them and after I'm done with them, there'll be all yours"

"And what exactly do _you_ want them for?"

"Let's just say, I'm taking care of a family matter" Vincent said, his face darkening for a moment. "Each one of the Journals contains a separate piece of information that I need. And once I have that, you can then have all three for yourselves. Deal?"

Vincent held his hand out for Gideon. He didn't take long to decide, as he clasped his hand around Vincent's cold grip and shook it.

"Deal. Now get me out of here" Gideon said at once, sounding as though he was given an order. Gideon walked up to the bars of his cell, as if expecting them to just open up, but Vincent did not immediately comply with his wish and just stood where he was. Gideon turned to him with an impatient glare. "I said now!"

Vincent raised an eyebrow at him. "You don't think it'll look the least bit suspicious" he said. "That you somehow managed to break out of prison on the very night after, you met with the Pine twins? They'll know I helped you get out and I need them to stay out of my plan. Those two are far more trouble than they look. Believe me, I know" he added grimly.

"Then what you do propose, _ally_?" Gideon sneered.

Vincent stared blankly at Gideon for a moment. He then walked forward, drawing dangerously close to Gideon's face, who seemed to shrink back slightly from his presence. Vincent raised his hand up, as if he was going to strike at Gideon, but instead he just reached into his cloak again and pulled out a small wad of putty. He then it dropped onto the floor, at Gideon's feet.

"Stand still" Vincent told him. He lifted himself back into the air and stopped next to the window. He reached into his cloak yet again and pulled out a tiny green crystal. He held the crystal out in front of the window, allowing the moonlight to shine through it. But instead of white light, a green coloured light came out from the crystal.

Vincent titled the crystal so that its light was shining directly over Gideon, who had to shield his own eyes from dazzling colour. As the light rested in Gideon, his shadow was cast to the floor by the illumination. The shadow fell over the putty Vincent had left on the floor. The green light then seemed to pass through Gideon's own body and focused itself down onto the putty, charging it with energy. This energy caused the putty to expand itself, growing larger and larger, until it was the same height Gideon himself. The putty slowly started to change its shape and colour, until it took on the form of a second Gideon Gleeful, who looked just as shocked by what happened as his original.

"How'd you do that?" Gideon said in amazement.

"I know a guy who owns a photocopier" Vincent answered, returning the floor and putting the crystal back in his cloak. "This is an exact clone of you. He completely like you in both mind and body"

"Oh I wouldn't know about that" clone Gideon said, immediately catching on. "I don't believe my skin is as soft and smooth as this handsome devil before me". He gestured to his original self who was already blushing at the compliment.

"Oh my goodness, I never knew my charms were that good that they'd work on myself"

"And here I thought narcissism was a crime!" both Gideons said simultaneously, which resulted in the two of them breaking into a fit of girlish giggling.

"O-kay…. that's a little creepy" Vincent said, looking somewhat perturbed what was happening in front of him. "But don't get used to it. This clone can only last on its own for about 5 days, which should be plenty of time for us, should everything go to plan. He'll stay here in your place, and you'll come with me"

"Excellent" the original Gideon said. He moved over to the window and motioned toward Vincent. "Now lift me up"

"My powers don't work on anything living" Vincent explained.

"Then how do I get up there!?" Gideon demanded, his anger returning. Vincent rolled his eyes wearily. He walked over to Gideon and picked him up by the back of his collar, lifting him off the ground effortlessly. Vincent floated back up to the window, carrying Gideon with him.

With a slight heave, Vincent tossed Gideon headfirst, straight through the gap in the bars. However he only made it about halfway, as the rest of him got stuck in the middle. Groaning frustration, Vincent started to push at Gideon behind, trying to squeeze him through the bars with little success. Getting increasingly impatient, Vincent raised his foot and gave Gideon a solid kick in the butt, which knocked him out of the window, but almost sent him falling straight to the ground. With a jolt, Vincent quickly reached out and grabbed Gideon by his ankle just before he fell too far.

Climbing through the gap, Vincent ascended back up into the air, still holding onto Gideon by just his ankle. Before he went any further, Vincent telekinetically bent the bars back to their normal state and flew off into the night, taking the real Gideon along with him and with the clone of Gideon sitting in the same place as his predecessor, no one was any wiser to what had transpired.


	11. A New Lead

Dipper paced up and down the bedroom. In his hand, he was repeatedly clicking his pen. Mabel was laying spread out on the bed, her head hanging over the edge as she stared up at the ceiling.

"Ok, what to do?" Dipper said aloud. "Gotta plan our next move here. Alright, so Gideon said that he copied the information of Jounral#2 onto a flash drive. All we need to do now is find out where he hid it. The most logical place would be at his house somewhere. Question is, how do we get in there to find it?"

"Oh I know!" Mabel jumped up. "We'll sneak in like cat burglars!"

"Okay, how would we do that?" Dipper asked indulging her. Mabel spread her arms out as she began out her pitch.

"We'll dress ourselves up in furry costumes made from some old carpets and then we'll put ourselves into a basket, pretending to be lost little kittens. Then we'll leave it at their doorstep so that'll adopt us and once we're inside, you search the house, while I distract with an irresistibly cute display of me playing with a ball of yarn. Meow, meow". Mabel started to swat the air with her hands in an adorable manner.

Dipper looked at his sister with a patient expression. "Mabel, I think you're taking the term 'cat burglar' a bit too literally"

"Literally is the best way to take anything! For example, I'm as stiff as a log!" Mabel straightened herself up and then fell face first to the floor like an actual wooden log. Dipper looked down his sister who had become a log, when he then heard Soos's voice calling him from downstairs.

"Dipper, someone's on the phone for you!"

A little bit surprised, Dipper left the bedroom and went downstairs to the kitchen, where he found Soos holding out the phone for him.

"Hello?" Dipper said, putting the phone to his ear.

"Hey Dipper"

"Oh hey Pacifica" he said casually. "Um how you are holding up, after the whole underground vampire monster thing?" Dipper chuckled a little nervously. "For me it, ah, took a couple of weeks before I could sleep again…without night terrors" he added awkwardly.

"Well, I'm starting six months of therapy tomorrow, but other than that, I think I'll live" she said dryly. "Anyway the reason I called was cause I wanted to tell about something I found today. I was looking through some of my parents old things in that room we found behind the mirror. And when I did, I found this old document, with my family's signature on. It was this contract between them and this other family, called the Voltaruss. That's the same name as the vampire kid right?"

"Right" Dipper said, listening intently to every word.

"Well, it says here that someone with that same name bought a house off of my great grandfather about sixty years ago. I asked my parents about it and they said that they took back possession a few years ago off it after the Voltrauss family mysteriously disappeared. No one lives at the house anymore. It's like, abandoned and run down. But I have its address and the name of the person who bought it"

"What's the name?" Dipper asked, already guessing the answer.

"Vladimir Von Voltaruss III"

"Okay, tell me the address" Dipper said, already having a pen and paper in hand. He quickly jotted down the address and stuck the paper into his pocket. "Thanks a lot for this, Pacifica. This is a big help"

"Just do me a favour and don't drag me into your crazy mystery solving weirdness" she said over the phone. "Therapy's expensive"

* * *

"Who was that on the phone" Mabel asked casually when Dipper came back to the room

"Pacifica" he answered.

"What, ah were you talking about with her?" Mabel asked, now sounding much more anxious.

"She told me about this old house that I think belong to Vincent's family and gave me the address. Maybe tomorrow we should check it out?"

"What about searching Gideon's house?" Mabel said.

"Hmmm" Dipper took a seat up on the bed and was soon followed by Mabel, who awaited his response. "If we go to Gideon's, we might find the flash drive, which could lead us to some answers about the Author. But if we look through Vincent's old home, we might find out about his past, what he's after and maybe how to stop him. But which to go after first? We gotta make a decision here"

The two of them sat in complete silence, Dipper still in serious thought and Mabel absently looking around the room.

"Well…maybe we could just split up" Mabel suggested. "I can go looking for the flash drive at Gideon's and you can take a look in Vincent's house. How does that sound?"

"That actually sounds like a good idea" Dipper said, breaking out of his trance and looking eagerly up at Mabel. "Maybe we could split and….". Dipper suddenly cut himself off when he took a brief moment to stop and stared at Mabel, who was still smiling innocently at him. Something about the scene didn't seem to sit right with Dipper, as he felt a great sense of reluctance swell in the back of his mind

"No, hang on a sec" he said, losing his earlier enthusiasm, rubbing the back of his neck. "I think it's better if we don't split up. I mean, we usually have a better chance of survival when we do these things together. So I say we both go to Vincent's house first and then Gideon's"

"You sure that'll work?" Mabel said, growing doubtful.

"Don't worry, we'll go out in the day. That's the safest time". Mabel still didn't look completely reassured, until Dipper back at her, putting his hand over her arm.

"It'll be alright" he promised. "Wherever we go, we go together okay?".

At this, Mabel regained her smile and nodded happily

"Okay!"

* * *

In a different part of town, the lights were still on at Gideon's old home. Everything was quiet, especially in his old bedroom now that it had no occupant. On the far wall of the room, opposite the dressing table, was the window. It didn't look like anything out of the ordinary that is until the latch clicked itself open and then the window was pulled up. From outside, a pair of tiny legs appeared from up above and were dangling in front of the now open window. They were kicking back and forward until one foot placed itself on the ledge.

This was enough for Gideon, who quickly lowered himself down from the roof and onto to the ledge, but in his haste, he slipped and fell forwards through the window. He landed on the floor with a small thud, but soon got up again and restlessly scurried into his room like an overly excited down dog. Behind him, Vincent calmly floated in through the open window and glided down to the floor with a lot less effort, telepathically closing it behind him.

"Ah my old room" Gideon said with rapture, spreading his arms out wide. "I see my parents have kept it in good condition for my eventual return". Gideon inhaled deeply, but paused as he suddenly could smell something wrong in the air. "Is that… lavender? How many times have I told that woman?! Cinnamon fresh only!"

Vincent clasped his hand over Gideon's mouth before he could take his tirade any further. "Keep your voice down" he implored. Getting the message across, Vincent removed his hand and glanced around the room. "Now where is this flash drive?"

"I safely hide it inside a stuffed Duck-tective toy I bought a few years ago". Gideon walked over to the nearby closet, opening it. He began shifting through the boxes inside, moving closer to the back of the wall.

"It's in here. I kept it safely hidden behind- It's gone! My duck is gone!". Gideon exclaimed. He frantically started to search the entire closet, looking for the toy. Soon he was randomly tossing everything out of the closet, chucking it from behind his back. Vincent was nearly caught off guard as a box almost hit him in the face, only for him to catch it in mid-air with his mind. He was soon forced to catch all of the closet contents as Gideon completely emptied out the entire closet space.

"Where is it? How did-?" Gideon paused for a moment and then squinted his eyes with rage. "My mother!" he snapped. "She must have moved it while she was in here. That cursed woman! I'll-"

"Hold it chubby". Vincent grabbed Gideon by his collar just as he half way toward the bedroom door. "I think your parents might be a bit surprised to see you out of jail. Don't you need making a scene just yet now do we?"

"If you want the flash drive, I need to speak to my mother!" Gideon snapped. Vincent pondered this over for a moment, before sighing tiredly, setting everything back to the floor.

"Fine, but I'll ask her" he said. "You wait here". Vincent strolled up to the door, which involuntarily swung wide open for him and then closed as he walked through it.

Downstairs in the living room, Bud Gleeful was sitting on the couch, hunched over a photo album that was speared open on the coffee table. Most of the pictures in the album were of Gideon at various ages. As a baby, he looked quite happy and innocent, but as he grew older, there was a clear progression through the pictures of him becoming more and more sinister looking.

"Oh my precious little dumpling" Bud said sadly. "I wonder how he's doing in prison. You know, I hope they're feeding him right in there. He's such a peckish young thing". Bud glanced up from the album just as his wife was doing a small pirouette around the room, casually cleaning everything with a feather duster as she spun. She looked much healthier than ever before. Her hair had more colour and she was actually smiling for the first time in years.

"You seem to be rather energetic this past while, darling" Bud said. "I hardly see you vacuuming anymore"

"I don't know what it is exactly" she said brightly, clasping her hands together. "But lately I've just been feeling so relieved. Like all of my fears have just disappeared and been locked far away inside a heavily armed prison somewhere. Say when was the last time we went dancing? We should go dancing!"

Mrs Gleeful did another graceful spiral across the room, throwing her arms up jubilantly. But her reveille was abruptly cut short when she came face to face with Vincent, who was suspended in the air, hanging upside down, directly in front of her.

"Hi there" he said. "Hold still". Vincent place his hand on Mrs Gleeful's forehead, holding her in place. Vincent's eyes then flashed crimson red which made Mrs Gleeful's eyes turn the same colour in response. After a few seconds of inspection, Vincent got what he need and broke off his trance with Mrs Gleeful.

"Thank you" he said politely. He flew back upstairs in a whoosh, leaving behind the stunned Mrs Gleeful. She did nothing but stare off into the space where Vincent had just been. Her right eye then began to twitch violently. She finally moved from her spot as she shakily walked backwards to the nearest closet and without even looking, she took out the vacuum cleaner. She turned it on and indistinctively started to clean the floor

"Just keep vacuuming, just keep vacuuming" she repeatedly muttered, pacing around the room. Bud on the other hand was still looking over his photos and was completely oblivious to the return of his wife's obsessive compulsion.

"Well?" Gideon said once Vincent came back.

"Your mother donated some of your stuff to a charity shop downtown" he answered.

"But how'd you-?" Gideon began

"You have your charms, I have mine. It's not important" Vincent waved his hand absently. "What is important is that we get the flash drive"

"Alright. We press forward!" Gideon said, raising his fist. He took off into a run toward the window. Jumping on his heels, he managed to push the window open and impatiently tried to pull himself up. But once he did, he fell straight through the window. Down below, there was the sound of crashing and a cat squealing. Vincent, who hadn't moved from his spot, watched all this unfold and groaned wearily, beginning to think this wasn't worth the trouble.

* * *

After finding the charity shop where the Duck-tective toy was donated to and breaking inside, Gideon and Vincent both began to search for the elusive stuffed animal amidst the second hand item. They soon found a large box filled with stuffed toys and were searching through it on separate ends.

"Don't you have x-ray vision or something?" Gideon asked impatiently as he tore about another Duck-detective toy and threw out its stuffing

"Do I look like Superman?" Vincent replied, picking up a toy that looked like a cross between a duck and a panda.

"Superman never had a stupid ponytail" Gideon said in a low voice.

"What was that?" Vincent snapped quickly.

"Oh, nothing" Gideon said with a sweet smile. He turned away from Vincent and instantly dropped the smile. "Once you've outlive your usefulness, you'll get yours vampire". He picked up another Duck-tective and stuck his hand inside. His features soon lit up when he felt his hand wrapped around something solid

"This is it" Gideon said triumphantly, pulling his hand out. In his hand was a small flash drive stick, with a piece of paper tapped onto the side, which read 'Jounral#2'.

"Every page of the Journal I had was scanned onto this stick" he said, showing to Vincent. "Now we just need to print off the pages"

"Well, you can do that and then let me look through the pages for what I need." Vincent reached into his pocket and checked his phone. "The sun will rise soon. I need to get back sleep"

"Alright, let's go". Gideon walked up beside Vincent, crossing his arms expectedly. Vincent gave him a long look, quickly realising what he was suggesting.

"You're not coming with me" Vincent said, pushing Gideon away. "I'll see you again tomorrow night"

"Wha-? W-w-where am I supposed to stay until then?" Gideon demanded. "What am I gonna eat? Where I'm gonna sleep, in a gutter!?"

"What'd you want? A sleepover?" Vincent said coldly. "We may be allies, but that doesn't mean I trust you. I'm defenceless during the day. You could stab me in the heart while I sleep or even steal the Journal from me. Besides, we also agreed that you would do something for me during the day. Or do you want me to take you back to prison?"

Gideon looked angrily Vincent, until he crossed his arms and gave a mumbled 'fine' in response.

"Here". Vincent handed Gideon a small piece of paper. "Following those instructions during the day and meet me near the cemetery after dark"

Vincent walked up to the door of the shop, which swung open without instruction. He floated up into the air and was already flying off, until Gideon call ran out of the shop after him.

"Wait, wait" he said. "What about finding Jounral#1? And when I'm I gonna get the other one?"

"I told you" Vincent said, rolling his eyes with exasperation and his back to Gideon. "After I'm done with them, they're yours. Just follow my instructions and I will see you tomorrow night". Vincent then made a small glance around to Gideon. "And don't let the Pines twins see you"

And with that, Vincent took off again, disappearing into the night. Gideon stared up into the sky to where Vincent had gone. He looked down at the piece of paper Vincent had given him and then around the deserted street, growling indignantly at being his predicament

* * *

**Please review. Helps me keep going. Peace out**


	12. Voltaruss Manor

On the outskirts of Gravity Falls, near the end of a small housing estate, there was a long forgotten manor that had remained abandoned and untouched for more than thirty years.

The manor looked like something out of a European housing catalogue. It was at least five stories big, with the building itself, stretching out in both directions, with a distinctive medieval style architecture. However, more than one half of the building was partly crumpled and collapsing on itself. The stone and wooden foundations looked like they had been burnt to rubble, and there were faint signs of scorch marks that trailed along the sides of the building, making it look grey and colourless. Much of the roof was also gone, but the main section of the house seemed to be intact for the most part.

In the courtyard in the front of the manor, there must be a huge garden which was now dead and rotten. There was a large water fountain that must have gone dry years ago, covered in moss and vine just like the ten foot stone walls that surrounded the run down estate. The walls looked as old and worn as the rest of the building, but still appeared sturdy enough to keep people out. The only opening in the walls was the iron bar gate that served as the entrance to the manor. At the top of the gate was a V shape insignia.

"This is the place" Dipper said, surveying the house through the metal bars of the gate.

"What happened here?" Mabel wondered.

"Looks like someone started a fire. We need to get inside to have a better look". Dipper motioned at Mabel with a jerk of his head. "Mabel, grappling hook".

Mabel gave Dipper a blank response in return. "I didn't bring it".

"You didn't bring it?" Dipper said, turning to her in disbelief. "Why not?"

"What, you think I carry it with me all the time?" she asked him.

"Um… do you?" he replied, uncertainly. "Or do you only use it just enough times so that it doesn't get boring or stale?"

"We don't need a grappling hook for this" Mabel said confidently. "We can just climb this dangerous and precariously high, rusty old gate with our bare hands. What could possibly be the harm in that?"

Mabel lightly patted the gate with one hand, but as soon she did, the gate creaked loudly and fell over backwards with a loud clang. Their path now unblocked, the two of them exchanged an awkward glance, with Mabel offering Dipper to go first. They entered the deserted courtyard, walking cautiously through the rampant overgrowth.

Climbing the steps up to the front door, Dipper a quick breath to steady himself before he turned the stiff handle to the side and pushed the door open. When they entered the front hallway, the first thing they noticed was that there was light in the room. A piece of the upper floor and ceiling was broken in, allowing light to shine in.

The interior of the manor seemed to be what you'd typically expect from such a place. It even reminded Dipper and Mabel of the Northwest manor. There was fine furniture, carpets, potted plants, an empty fireplace, a large staircase and glass chandelier. The only difference was that everything in this place was broken, burnt or otherwise completely eroded to a decrepit state due to decades of neglect.

"Okay, you know the drill" Dipper said, handing his sister a flashlight

"Right, you check downstairs and I'll check upstairs" Mabel said. She was about to set one foot on the first step, when a chunk of the ceiling caved in and crashed down in the middle of the staircase.

Mabel, without changing her expression, turned herself around on one foot, away from the stairs. "All done!"

She then followed Dipper into the dining room of the house that was devoid of any light. The floorboards creaked under their feet as they walked slowly through the decaying room past a long dinner table that was broken into pieces. Still creeping through the empty hallways, Dipper and Mabel entered a larger living room area that seemed to have survived most of the damage done by the fire. There were no windows, but there was another hole in the ceiling above, providing some light to one half of the room.

Like the rest of the house, there didn't seem to be any of spectacular interest inside of the room other than destroyed furniture, not that Dipper or Mabel were entirely sure what they were supposed to be looking for.

Dipper walked over to the dark side of the room, using his flashlight to navigate his surroundings. He moved his light along the walls, trying to see if there was another door or room nearby. But what he found instead was the face of a sinister looking man, staring directly at him.

Dipper jumped back with a yelp when he saw the man, but once he readjusted his light and got a better look, he realised that what he had seen was merely a painting hanging from the wall. Moving closer to the wall, he took in the image of the man in the painting and couldn't help but noticing a striking sense of familiarity toward him.

Inscribed at the bottom of the portrait were the words 'Vladimir von Voltaruss'. Out of the corner of his eye, Dipper noticed that there was another picture frame hanging beside it. Dipper moved his light to the right and saw that the other portrait was that of an almost identical looking man to the first, only this one read 'Vladimir von Voltaruss II' instead. Moving on again, there was another portrait for Vladimir number three and then number 4. Dipper moved on to the next portrait and was already half expecting who it was going to be.

But once he reached the last picture Dipper was a little taken back, when it turned out the portrait was of…..Mabel. Literally Mabel. She was holding up a square shaped and empty picture frame in front of her face, standing in a vacant section of the wall, which had doubtingly been saved for the fifth Voltaruss.

"This is the big plot twist" she said, smiling at Dipper through the frame. He bought back small laugh and then turned to the rest of the walls, which were vacant as well.

"So these were Vincent's forefathers" Dipper said, looking at each picture in turn once again.

"What'd you think happened to them all?" Mabel asked, still holding her frame up in front of her face as she stood beside Dipper.

"I don't know" he said. "But vampires are supposed to be immortal, unless they get hit by the sun or if somebody else kills them instead. If that's the case, then it must mean that someone else was trying to stop these guys. But who was that?"

Mabel was about to open her mouth to give a reply, when Dipper abruptly resumed speaking.

"When he and I first met, Vincent mentioned the Author and he seemed to imply that he knew him personally. He said that he was the one who sealed him away or something. But this house was bought years before the Author was investigating Gravity Falls"

Mabel opened her mouth again, but then Dipper cut her off.

"And why was there a crypt made only for Voltaruss III? What about his son, Voltaruss IV, Vincent's father? What happened to him? This is getting curiouser and curiouser, even though I'm pretty that's not a real word"

Mabel narrowed her eyes angrily at Dipper. She waited for a few seconds as he tapped his chin with a pensive expression until she was certain he wasn't going to speak again. She then took a deep breath already to speak her own mind, but it looked like Dipper had developed a sixth sense for knowing when she was going to talk

"Okay, the next step is to find the secret room in the house" he said. Mabel slumped her shoulders in exasperation. "There is always a secret room in these places. So the secret lever to open it, will either be a candle stick, a book case or a fake panel. We'll fan out and look for-"

Dipper shifted his weight onto his left foot, as he prepared to move in that direction, but in the split second that he did, the wooden floor beneath him and Mabel gave way with a snap, sending them both falling downwards.

They didn't fall too far, but still landed with a solid thud on a hard surface. Pieces of broken wood clattered to the ground around them. Dipper groaned, pushing off a wooden board that had hit the back of his head.

"Mabel?" Dipper called out, coughing up some dust.

"Dipper" she replied in a quiet voice. Dipper stood up and moved in the direction of Mabel's voice, and found her lying sprawled out among the broken wood. Her hands were wrapped around a long, splintered and a sharp piece of wood that was sticking up in the air, piercing right through her chest. She coughed weakly, as she rested her eyes on Dipper.

"Dipper" she whispered softly, reaching out for his hand. "My dear brother. I'm sorry….*cough*….I wish I could have gone….*cough*…. just a bit further with you." She squeezed his hand tighter and looked deep into his eyes. "Remember….I will always…..be with you….". Mabel gasped quietly, her eyes rolling into the back of her head and then she fell back limply against the floor, her body going still.

Dipper, looking hugely unimpressed, simply lifted up Mabel's right arm and pulled out the broken piece of wood had been sticking out from in underneath it, completely missing her body. Mabel opened one eye and then jumped back up, full of life once again.

"Reanimation!" she cried, waving her arms in the air.

Dipper rolled his eyes with a slight smile as he stood back up. Getting back on track, he started to look at their surroundings to get an idea of where they were. It looked like they had fallen into a large underground chamber. The room was completely black, the only source of light being the hole in they made in the floor above. Squinting his eyes in the dark, Dipper was able to make what looked like a desk, sitting just within the reach of the light. Walking up to the desk, Dipper found a small candle inside a holster. He took a match from his pocket and lit it against the candle which brought more light into the room.

The room appeared to be some kind of library or a large study. There were a number of large shelves pressed up against the wall, filled with dozens of books, ranging from small to big, thin to thick. Picking up the candle, Dipper took a closer look at the books and could tell that they covered a wide variety of topics, such as chemistry, biology, astronomy, and many others. Some of the books were even in different languages.

After Dipper lit up a couple more candles that were sitting on the wall nearby, more of the room's interior became visible, showing that it was much bigger than it initially seemed. Along with the bookshelves, there was also other medieval-esque items such as suits of armour, ancient weapons, animal skin decorations, long fancy drapes scattered about.

In another corner of the room was a bench, which looked as though it was the type a mad scientist might use. It was littered with glass beakers, jars and Bunsen burners, most of them toppled or broken. Chemicals and other spilled liquids were drenched across the top of the bench and stained the floor beneath it.

Dipper glanced around and then walked up to one end of the chamber than seemed to be wider than the rest. Shining the light closer, it was hollowed out section of the chamber that looked like something that might have been used as an exercise yard. There was no equipment nearby, but Dipper did spot something strange. A medium sized set of concrete cinder blocks that were stacked together on the floor, looking quite out of place compared to everything else.

Moving back to the desk, Dipper lifted himself up and took a seat on the high chair. The desk itself was mostly bare, with only a few scraps of old paper laying around, but they were mostly blank, ripped or just eligible. Dipper then checked some of the drawers underneath the desk. In the topmost left hand drawer, he found something that caught his eye. A small makeshift and tattered looking notebook, which a single word craved at the top in bright red ink.

"Abendroth?" Dipper said, picking up the notebook. Setting the notebook on the desk, Dipper opened it

The notebook was filled with a number names and photographs of various people, all of whom shared the same last name in common, Abendroth. Many of the names in the book were scribbled out and the photos were marked with an X. Flipping through some of the pages, Dipper saw that there were also a number of dates speared out along the papers, some of which dated back as far as the 18th century.

Turning the page again, Dipper found a section of the notebook which seemed to be devoted to a single person. A large, grey bearded man in a trench coat, with scar going over his right eye and down his neck. Although it was just a picture, Dipper could feel a strong, imposing presence coming off this man. Below his picture was the name Acton Abendroth. Whoever wrote this book, seemed to consider this man a threat, as it was repeatedly empathised through the page how dangerous this man was and he must be eliminated immediately. Dipper stared down at the photo of this strange man, a thought creeping into his mind

"Could he be…?"

"Oh…my…gosh!"

"What? What is it!?" Dipper jumped up from the desk in a fright and looked wildly around the room for Mabel. He spotted her as she approached the desk, carrying something in her hands, looking ecstatic.

"Dipper, check out what I just found!"

Mabel held up a small black looking cloth. Moving in for a closer inspection with the candle light, Dipper realised that what she was holding up was just a sweater. It looked the same size and shape as every other sweater Mabel owned, only that it was black in colour. And like Mabel's sweaters, it even had its own little decoration in the middle of it; two little red coloured bats joined together by their wings.

"Look at this sweater!" Mabel cried. "Isn't it the greatest thing you've ever seen?!"

Dipper stared down at the sweater and then back up to Mabel, looking a little disappointed. "Yeah, and it's totally, not different from the other four thousand, six hundred and twenty four sweaters that you already own" he said sarcastically.

"Four thousand, six hundred and thirty eight" she corrected smartly. "And yes it is! Just feel the softness of the wool. And look at the detail on these little bats. This was crafted by the hands of a master sweater knitting person. And it's black! It's the only colour I don't have! It's a black sheep of sweaters! Probably made by an actual black sheep!"

Mabel removed the sweater that she was currently wearing and pulled on the black one, which was a perfect fit. Mabel placed her hands on her hips and stuck her chest out boldly.

"I officially declare this as the best adventure we've ever had!"

"Okay" Dipper said placidly. "Well I think we've seen enough for now". Dipper stowed the notebook into his jacket and hopped off the chair. "Let's get outta here"

"Any idea how we do actually that?" Mabel asked, looking around the chamber which seemed to lack any visible doors. Dipper looked around as well and then up to the opening in the ceiling above from where they had entered.

"I really wish you had brought that grappling hook" Dipper lamented.

* * *

**Yeah ,they're gonna miss that grappling hook. And Mabel's gonna deeply regret picking up that sweater**

**Please review and peace out**


	13. Nightmares and Graverobbing

_Deep within the underground chamber beneath the Voltaruss manor, Vincent was scrunching his face in concentration, focusing all of his attention on a single concrete cinder block laying out in front of him. Straining himself with as much effort as he could, he tried to levitate the block off the ground. The block remained motionless for the most part, but after a few seconds it started to wobble slightly and raised itself half a centimetre off the ground. For a moment, Vincent thought he had done it, but once he let his attention waver, the block fell back to the floor with a resounding thud. _

"_Ohhh" Vincent sighed morosely, lowering his head down with disappointment. He was then rewarded with a sharp blow to the back of his head from behind._

"_What's wrong with you? You still haven't gotten it right yet?!"_

_Vincent rubbed his head and looked up at the shadowy figure towering over him. "I-I'm sorry, I-I-I've been practicing, really" he said meekly, shrinking away in fear from the figure. "It's just really hard. I'll get it right, I promise"_

"_You call yourself a Voltaruss?" the figure berated. "You haven't even mastered your telekinesis yet. And you know why? Because you're worthless, that's why"_

"_But I'm not worthless" Vincent cried desperately. "I-I can do it, I just-"_

_The figure angrily waved his hand through the air. The cinder block that Vincent had previously tried to lift was thrown upwards and then smashed into the floor, narrowly missing Vincent who flinched from the impact._

"_Get this through your head". The shadowy figure poked Vincent in the middle of his forehead with one long, pointed finger, with enough force to knock him back onto the stone floor. "You were born worthless and you're always going to be worthless until you get the job done. Now say it! What are you?"_

"_I-I-I'm worthless" Vincent mumbled, down on his knees and keeping his eye on the floor._

"_That's right. Worthless. You will never be worth anything to anybody until the day you complete our family's legacy. And if you can't, get a kid of your own and pray he won't be half worthless as you are. Now get back to work! Worthless!"_

* * *

Vincent's eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright from the stone coffin in which he slept. Sweating profusely across his forehead and panting wildly, he looked around the empty crypt checking for any signs of danger. After a few seconds, Vincent calmed down and slowly lowered himself back into the coffin. He sat there, resting his arms on his knees as he regained control of his breathing. Groaning heavily, he rubbed his left temple, trying to block out his recent memories. It was then he noticed that the coffin was wide open, its top half missing. Glancing to the side, he saw the lid of the coffin was smashed up against the wall and quickly realised he had involuntary sent it flying when he woke up. With another groan, Vincent dragged his hand down his face and climbed out of the coffin.

As he walked down the steps of the platform, the tiny green eyed spider was waiting for Vincent at the bottom. Its abdomen was already opened and its huge green eye flashing, ready to show Vincent what it had recorded, but he simply waved a dismissive hand at it.

"Not now" he said curtly, walking past the spider while rubbing his eyes. In the middle of the room, Vincent picked up his cape which he had left lying on the floor and neatly clasped it around his neck. He took a deep inhale to steady himself, shook his shoulders loose and pressed out his chest, putting on as dignified pose as he could, making his way toward the staircase, doing everything he could to forget his dream.

* * *

Sometime later, Vincent was pacing up and down in front of the gate of the Gravity Falls cemetery. Glancing up at the cloudless sky, he began to wonder whenever or not his new acquaintance was coming or not.

Just then, there was the sound of something rustling in the bushes nearby and a second later, out from popped Gideon Gleeful, who was now looking worse for wear. His prison uniform was now all muddied and ripped, his white hair in a decrepit state, with leaves and pieces of wood poking out of it. There were scratch marks across his neck, his check, front and back, some with nickels of blood still trickling out.

"Did you get what I asked for?" Vincent asked, showing no concern for Gideon state.

"I hope you appreciate this" Gideon said, eyeing Vincent with a vehement expression of pure loathing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bundle of cloth. "I had to steal this from a tribe of nomadic humanoid cat-people who tried to sacrifice me to their deity. And then I got stung by a bee!" Gideon opened his collar and indicating to a swelling on his neck. "I have _not_ been having good day"

"Uh huh, uh huh" Vincent said absently, taking the bundle from Gideon and sticking inside his cape. "And did you also print out the contents of the flash drive?"

Gideon gave Vincent another angry look, begrudgingly pulling out a stack of ring bound papers. On each piece of paper there was a printed image of brown page photocopied from Journal#2. Vincent took the substitute Journal and started to flip through the pages.

"How much longer is this gonna take?" Gideon said impatiently, starting to pace around in a circle "My clone will only last a few more days and then they'll figure out I escaped. When are we going to go after the final Journal? When do I get the third? What other secrets do you know about Gravity Falls? How soon until I can have my vengeance on the Pines family?" Gideon stopped pacing and turned to Vincent who was still calmly flipping through the papers, clearly not paying him any attention.

"And how much longer are you going to look through that book?!" Gideon snapped furiously.

"Done" Vincent said shortly, stopping at a single page. He ripped the piece of paper off the ringed bindings and then threw the rest of the papers back to Gideon

"That's it?" Gideon said incredulously.

"I only needed one page" Vincent said, folding the piece of paper and sticking inside his cape.

"One page from each Journal?" Gideon said. "If that's all you need, then give me Jounral#3 now, I've done my part!"

"Not yet" Vincent said, holing up his finger. "Remember our deal. Now come on. I've gotten another job for you". Vincent waved his hand, which opened the metal gate of the cemetery. He promptly entered through it, with Gideon following suit. They both walked in silence through the deserted graveyard, weaving in out between the gravestones.

The eeriness of the current setting began to unnerve Gideon somewhat, as he nervously pulled on his collar, glancing around the area with a growing sense of fear, while Vincent on the other hand was unperturbed by the atmosphere and had his eyes set directly ahead of them. Eventually they came to a large clearing near the back of the cemetery, occupied by a single, plain, old looking gravestone. Vincent and Gideon made their way to the grave, close enough that they could make out the faded text carved into the stone; Acton Abendroth'.

Vincent raised his hand over the grave and clenched his fingers. He slowly pulled his hand upwards, as if he was tugging on an invisible rope. The ground in front of the tombstone started to shake and rupture as a coffin ascended up through the dirt and into the air. Vincent dropped the coffin to the ground, only just missing Gideon, who quickly side stepped the impact.

After it had landed, Gideon took a moment to examine the coffin. What was off putting about it, was a long metal plate that ran the whole way across the lid, as if to seal it shut. Not only that, but etched into the metal plate was a set of strange looking glyphs Before Gideon could examine these markings any further, Vincent pulled out a crowbar from within his very spacious cape and unceremoniously tossed it over to Gideon who just barely caught it in time.

"Open it" Vincent said.

"Open it?" Gideon repeated, looking up from the crowbar to the coffin and then to Vincent. "Why do I have to open it? You can do it yourself!" Gideon threw the crowbar to the ground in defiance.

Vincent sighed again and shook head. He walked over to the coffin and then emphatically waved his hand in front of Gideon as if to make his demonstration obvious. Vincent then placed his hand firmly onto the coffin and a second later, the glyphs on the metal plate lit up with a bright green light that channelled itself onto Vincent's hand, sending a wave of electricity through his body which forced him to back away from the coffin.

Vincent hissed in pain and gripped the wrist of his hand, which was still sizzling with smoke. Bowing a little onto his hand, Vincent soon recomposed himself and turned back to Gideon.

"The occupant of this coffin made sure that someone like me wouldn't be able to get inside" he explained. "So he put a powerful seal on it that can repel vampires. I cannot open. So you have to do it for me"

"Well, then why don't you smash it open with your telekinesis?" Gideon suggested.

"Can't do that either" Vincent said through his teeth, beginning to sound frustrated. "The interior of the coffin is lined with the same sealing magic. This guy was kinda paranoid. Only human hands can open it". Vincent levitated the crowbar into the air and set it back into Gideon's hands. "Now open it"

Gideon looked down at the crowbar in his hands, now with a much more curious expression. "And what is inside this coffin exactly?" he asked, his interest rising.

"Open it and you'll see" Vincent answered.

Gideon looked like he might have wanted to argue again, but then he finally gave in. "Ugh, fine. But I do not enjoy strenuous exercise. It leaves such blisters on my li' ol hands"

Gideon roughly jammed the tip of the crowbar into the top of the metal plate, making a small hole in it. With a few more hits, he managed to stick most of the crowbar inside the plate and began to pull it backwards, bending the metal. With another pull, he snapped a clear line in the middle of the plate. For a brief second the glyphs on the metal lit up again, but then they just as quickly diminished.

After watching with some anticipation, Vincent approached the coffin again, cautiously extending his hand to the lid. He placed his hand on the wood, ready to pull it away again, but this time, the glyphs did not activate. Smiling in satisfaction, Vincent effortlessly flipped the lid of the coffin open

Inside the coffin was the skeletal remains of a man. The clothes he had been wearing when he was buried, consisted of a long brown trench coat, with leather boots and a hat. Craved along the side of the skull, going down the right eye, was a deep crack-like scar.

Vincent levitated the skeleton out of the coffin and dropped it into the ground. He walked up to the pile of bones, stopping to stand right over the skull.

"So whose dust now?" Vincent said, bending down to the skull, with a wicked smile. He then reached down into the inner pocket of the skeleton's coat and felt his hand around, but his smile soon disappeared when he couldn't find anything.

"What's wrong?" Gideon said, watching as Vincent started to rummage through the bones with both hands.

"It's not here" he grunted back. "Where is it? Check the coffin!"

Gideon hopped up into the coffin, coughing a little as he moved his hands around the dirt. "What I'm I looking for exactly?" he called back to Vincent.

"It's like a knife, with a curved, leather handle" Vincent said, now checking the boats of the skeleton. Finding nothing, Vincent stood back up and tapped his chin fretfully. "It has to be here somewhere. Where else would he have-?"

"Look, all I'm saying is that we would have gotten here a lot sooner if you had just brought your grappling hook"

"And all_ I'm_ saying is…. 'meowmeowmeow'!"

Vincent turned his head around in shock when he heard two distinctively familiar voices approaching. Dipper and Mabel both walked into view, the two of them caught in the middle of an argument.

"Okay, yeah real mature Mabel" Dipper said. "How about next you-". Dipper looked away from Mabel and then immediately stopped talking, abruptly coming to a halt right in front of her.

"What?" Mabel asked, stopping beside Dipper. She followed his line of sight and got her question answered when she spotted Vincent standing in front of them.

Vincent continued to stare at the two of them, who looked just as stunned to see him as he was to see them. For a moment, no one made any sounds or sudden movements. The silence was broken when Gideon spoke up again from within the coffin

"Is somebody-?"

Reacting fast and without taking his eyes off Dipper or Mabel, Vincent kicked the lid of the coffin closed with the back of his hand, shutting Gideon inside before anyone could see him.

"Hey! What's going on? Let me out!" he cried. But his voice was muffled from within the coffin, enough so that no one could make out his voice properly

"W-what is that?" Dipper said, briefly shaking his head as his voice returned.

"Guess this one was buried a little early" Vincent mused.

"What are you doing here, Vincent?" Dipper demanded, trying to take command of the situation.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Vincent countered, who genuinely sounded suspicious. He slowly turned his head back to the gravestone and then to Dipper and Mabel, realization beginning to dawn onto him.

"You came to find this grave didn't you?"

"No, no" Mabel quickly denied. "We thought…this would be a nice place for a picnic!"

"You have picnics in the dead of night, in an abandoned cemetery?" Vincent said, deadpanned

"Less picnic ants that way! And we can invite any late night zombies!" Mabel cheered. Beside her, Dipper put his hand over his face with embarrassment. Moving his hand away, Dipper then took notice of the skeleton laying out at Vincent's feet.

"Oh my gosh! Is that him?" Dipper said immediately. "Is that the Acton Abendroth?"

"How do you know that name?" Vincent asked, his tone becoming sharper

"Well….because I….uh" Dipper fumbled. "Because….I suspected that he's the Author of the Journals

Vincent didn't say anything back and just looked at Dipper for a moment before chortling with disbelief. "What? You think this guy was the Author? Of course he's not"

"He's not?" Dipper said, with some surprise.

"Um, yeah. He's not" Vincent repeated. "Why would you think he was?"

"Oh, well" Dipper just shrugged. "I just, you know, kinda thought he might have been or he could have-"

"Wait, wait, wait" Vincent paused to hold held his hands up, giving Dipper another look of incredulity. "Are you telling me, you don't actually know _who_ the Author of the Journals is?"

"Well…I…uh" Dipper avoided Vincent's piercing stare and scratched the back of his neck, unable to come up with an answer. Vincent then widened his eyes in surprise and just burst out laughing.

"Oh man. That is hilarious" he said, letting out another snigger. "You've spent all this time trying to solve this big mystery when the answer itself, is sitting right in front of you! Are you kidding me?!"

"So you do know who the Author is?" Dipper said,

"Of course I know who he is, but you haven't figured it out yet? Ha! Looks like I gave you too much credit". Vincent started to laugh again at Dipper's expense.

Dipper clenched his hands and scowled deeply, but he didn't make a retort, just allowing Vincent's words to sink in, feeling a very big sting at his pride.

"Hey, don't make fun of my brother!" Mabel said heatedly, stepping forward. "That's my job and I'm not looking for early retirement just yet"

"Well, that's nice and all" Vincent said. "But you two are really starting to get in my way, so why don't….you-"

Vincent didn't finish whatever he was about to say, as he slowing came to a complete halt. Once Mabel had come close enough and was in full view, Vincent looked as though he had just seen a ghost.

He no longer seemed to be aware of where he was anymore, or even of Dipper and Mabel who were still standing in front of him. It was as if he had put a blinder onto the rest of the world and had just tuned everything out. Everything, that is, except the red and black sweater that Mabel was currently wearing. The exact same sweater that she had found underneath the Voltaruss manor and decided to keep.

Vincent's eyes were locked entirely onto the black fabric and his face was flushed with recognition. But that wasn't all. His features slowly began to soften, his mouth falling open and even for a moment his eyes seemed to become a little watery.

Dipper and Mabel exchanged a bewildered look at Vincent's actions, neither of them having any idea what he was doing. But soon that didn't matter

In an instant, Vincent snapped back to reality and his features just went from completely stupefied to absolute rage. His eyes lit up, burning a brilliant shade of red, his mouth curled into a viscous snarl. With the crackle of a whip, his cape shot up behind him, as several veins started to form on his forehead.

"**YOOOOOU!**" Vincent roared with fury, pointing an accusing finger at Mabel. "YOU WERE IN MY **HOUSE**!"

The wind started to rise up around Vincent's body, sending a powerful gust in the direction of Dipper and Mabel, which nearly knocked them off their feet. Several cracks formed in the ground, originating out from where Vincent was standing. Nearby, a number grave stones broke themselves free from the ground and floated up the air, until they literally exploded into dust, crushed by an unseen pressure.

Vincent now started hyperventilating, breathing in hard through his clenched jaw, his fists curling up into tight little balls. He looked angrier than Dipper or Mabel had ever seen him. Even from where they were standing, they could feel his rage building up toward them, almost as if it was a heat wave pulsating toward them.

"Um… Mabel" Dipper said slowly. "I think you should take off that sweater"

"I can't take it off" she said defensively. "It's my black sheep"

Another small fissure opened up in the ground, as Vincent started to advance on them. "You were in my house!" he screamed. "What did you do?! What else did you take?!"

"Mabel, I really think you should give him the sweater" Dipper said through his clenched teeth, already pulling her back by the arm.

"That's not fair!" she said, somehow being able to block out Vincent. "How come I never get to keep any souvenirs?"

"Mabel!" Dipper said, his fear becoming paramount. They both turned back to Vincent, who looked like he might literally explode at this point.

"You think you can mess with me?!" he snarled. "I'll show you what the power of a true Voltaruss can really do!"

Vincent thrust his hand within his cape and pulled out the same bundle of cloth he had received from Gideon earlier. Tearing the cloth open, it revealed a round, blue gemstone, like a sapphire, sitting in the palm of his hand. Vincent then reached down and grabbed skeleton of Acton Abendroth's by its skull, and snapped it clean off the spine in one smooth motion.

Vincent stared down at the sapphire he was holding, his eyes burning red once again. The gemstone then went from being sapphire to crimson red. With both items in his hand, he jammed the gemstone into the skull and threw to the ground at Dipper and Mabel's feet.

For the first couple of seconds, they both really hoped that nothing bad was about to happen. And of course they were wrong. The empty sockets of the skull started to glow red as well, just as the ground started to shake again. Looking around the cemetery, they could see thousands of bones being pulled out from the grave below and flying up into the air above their heads, spiralling around in small vortex . The skull of Acton Abendroth floated upwards and moving toward the epicentre of the vortex which began spinning around even faster, creating a small whirlwind, churning so much dust Dipper and Mabel couldn't see what was happening.

When the whirlwind dissipated, there came a loud crashing sound and the shockwave of something heavy hitting the ground, which knocked Dipper and Mabel off their feet. When looked up again, they could see what hit the ground

A massive skeletal monster, made entirely out of bones. Its bottom half compressed of six spider like legs, its top half a single, long spinal cord, with a ribbed cage, with twisted spikes protruding along its back and shoulders. It had two different sets of arms for a total of four, each with elongated claws for fingers. Its head was in the shape of a giant skull built out of what must have been every single skull in the cemetery, compressed together, with the same red gemstone from earlier, glowing in the centre of the forehead. Its eyes were empty, but they were still glowing red just like its forehead

"Okay, you can have the sweater" Mabel said, smiling nervously, quickly taking off the sweater and throwing it to the ground. But it looked like this was too little too late.

"Kill them!" Vincent ordered.

The skeleton answered this command by pulling its head back and letting out a deafening shriek, which was enough incentive for Dipper and Mabel to get back up and start running for their lives.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Starting to see a little more of Vincent's past and it's not a pleasant one. Also, to let everyone know, this story is going to start converging with the main series soon as well. Till then, please review and peace out**


	14. Battle in the Cemetary, part 1

You would think that spending your entire summer running away from supernatural monsters would be something you'd eventually have gotten used to, or at the very least, let you build up some better cardio so that you could run faster. But sadly that didn't seem to be the case for Dipper or Mabel.

They were running through the cemetery as fast as their legs could carry them and screaming as loud their lungs could shout. Behind them, the huge skeleton monster was starting to gain on them, its spider like legs digging into the ground. Ducking, weaving and climbing over every gravestone and monument in their path, the Pines twins finally saw the gate of the cemetery just ahead of them and doubled their pace.

From the behind, the skeleton suddenly stopped moving. It tucked its legs downward and then jumped up through the air, landing right in front of the main gate, cutting off Dipper and Mabel before they could reach it. They quickly turned on their heels and ran in the opposite direction just as the skeleton raised its two sets of arms and slammed them down on the ground, narrowly missing the twins.

They made their way back into the maze of head stones, being careful not to let themselves get separated. The skeleton came for them again, swiping its clawed hands through the air above their heads, cutting down the surrounding gravestones like a rake. The twins ran even faster, having no idea where they were actually going, only that wherever it was, it should be far away from the skeletal monster that was on their tail.

All they could do was keep running forward, until the ground beneath them suddenly disappeared and they fell downwards. They landed into some soft dirt. Looking up, Dipper realised they had fallen into a freshly dug grave which was still vacant. Directly above them, the skeleton stopped right over the grave, turning its head in every direction, trying to spot where the twins had vanished. Once it moved on, Dipper and Mabel popped their heads out of the grave, watching go.

Glancing around the area, Dipper spotted a small, old looking mausoleum in the distance, the door of which was cracked open. Gesturing to Mabel, they climbed out of the grave as quietly as possible and scurried over to the mausoleum before the skeleton made another pass around in this direction. Getting inside, they closed the door behind them and huddled down on the floor, not making any sounds. Outside they could the loud footsteps of the skeleton moving away in another direction.

"Okay, okay, okay" Dipper said, thinking it was safe to talk. "We're trapped in a cemetery with a giant reanimated skeleton monster chasing us. Need a plan. Plan, plan, plan, plan, plan, plan" Dipper muttered repeatedly, trying to think of any way out of this mess. He started to literally hit himself in the side of the head with the palm of his hand, as if to force out an idea. He then gave up and slumped the back of his head against the wall. "Oh, this is useless. I don't know what to do without the Journal"

"Come on, you don't need the Journal" Mabel said, with the utmost confidence in her brother. "You can figure something out, so keep thinking! Think, think, think!" Mabel took over for Dipper and started to vigorously smack him in the head with her palm.

"Mabel, I don't even know what that….thing is" he said, unperturbed by his sister's hits. "The Journal might have given us a clue on how to defeat, but I've got no ideas"

"Come on. Just think of something really smart to save us" Mabel said, briefly shaking Dipper's head back and forward. "Use the left half of my brain! Like that time when you saved me from Gideon's giant robot. Well, I mean you jumped off a huge cliff and landed on its head, so I guess it wasn't really smart, but-"

"That its!" Dipper suddenly stood up, shouting over Mabel, having just had a Eureka moment. "If I know my giant monster movie clichés and, I should hope I do after watching those 18 hour marathons, is that they always have a small central piece or a convenient weak spot, usually around the head, and that if we take it out, the whole thing should come crashing down just like what happened with Gideon"

Mabel paused for a moment to let Dipper's words sink in. "So…we have to get that glowing jewel thingy on its head?" she finished.

"Right" Dipper nodded.

"And you think that'll work?" Mabel said, doing her best to keep her uncertainty at a minimum.

"That or we could stay in here forever" Dipper replied dryly, shrugging his shoulders. "Wouldn't be so bad".

"So how are we going to do this?" Mabel asked. Dipper thought about it for a second until he spotted a small shovel on the floor.

Peaking outside the door, the twins exited the mausoleum, Dipper with the shovel now in hand. Going around the side, Mabel gave Dipper a leg up to the roof of the mausoleum. Dipper then reached down with the shovel to pull Mabel up as well. Getting into position on the roof, they could see the skeleton not too far from where they were, still prowling the area.

"All we need to do now is knock it off balance" Dipper whispered.

"I got it" Mabel said, grinning when something below got her eye. Without warning, she quickly climbed down the mausoleum and ran out into the cemetery.

"Mabel, wait!" Dipper called after her in a panic.

"Hey you!" she called out to the skeleton, which turned its head in her direction. "Boy for a skeleton you sure look pretty fat! Or you just big boned? Some pretty _fat _bones!"

Dipper groaned with despair and covered his eyes. Without giving much pause for thought, the skeleton let out a loud shrieked and charged right for Mabel, who was calmly standing her ground. When the skeleton was only a few feet away, Mabel broke into another run, leading the skeleton off to the right.

Dipper cringed with fear as the skeleton chased Mabel around in a small circle in front of the mausoleum. For a moment he was afraid it was about to catch her, when one of its spider legs fell right into the open grave they had fallen into before. Its leg sunk into the hole as it was moving and this was enough to trip the skeleton using its own momentum, as it fell forward on its front side with a huge crash, landing near the mausoleum

Seeing what Mabel had done, it didn't take Dipper long to figure what to do next. Taking a quick running start, he jumped off the top of the mausoleum and landed onto the head of the skeleton before it could get up.

Grabbing a hold of one of the dozens of human skulls that made up the skeleton's head, Dipper moved over to the skull that contained the glowing jewel Vincent had used to bring the creature to life. But before he could reach it, the skeleton got back up and started to shake its head around widely, trying to throw Dipper off. It nearly succeeded as Dipper lost his grip and slide down the side of the head, but then managed to save himself by jamming the end of the shovel in between the line of skulls, using it as a handle. Even though the skeleton was still shaking its head, Dipper climbed his way back up, using the shovel, until he reached the top of its head again, doing his best to keep his balance.

Finally spotting the skull that contained the jewel, Dipper thrust the shovel underneath the skull and started to pull on the handle in order to break it free. The skeleton roared again and raised every one of its hands above its head, preparing to crush Dipper.

But Dipper didn't have time to think or worry about this. He pulled down on the shovel with all the strength he could muster until finally, the skull popped right out, flying through the air and then landed right into Mabel's hands below. The skeleton ceased its struggling, its arms falling lime to the side, the red glow in its eyes dissipating.

"Haha! Yes!" Dipper cheered, throwing his arms up triumphantly. However, his smile soon faded when he realised that the mass of bones he was standing on had immediately begun to fall apart.

"Great" Dipper said drearily, losing all enthusiasm. The skeleton broke apart and collapsed into a huge pile of bones which had made up its form. After the dust cleared, Mabel ran up to the pile, finding Dipper laying sprawled out, underneath some of the bones.

"Dipper!" she cried over his body, dropping to her knees. "My dear brother! Taken in the prime of your life! Oh, why, cruel fate, why?!"

"Mabel, I'm not dead" Dipper grunted, trying to sit up, but Mabel put a finger to his lips.

"Shh. Rest now sweet prince" she said softly. "May flights of angles sing thee to your rest. In that sleep of death what dreams may come. Brevity was the soul of your wit, for there was method in your madness". Mabel dramatically put the back of her hand over her eyes and held the skull in the air. "Alas poor Dipper, I knew him well and-"

"Okay, enough with the Hamlet already!" Dipper said, taking the skull out of her hands before she could go any further. "Look let's get outta here before Vincent shows up again"

"Good idea" Mabel agreed with a smile, making her way back to the exit of the cemetery.

Dipper was just about to follow her, when he remembered the skull in his hands. He was about to throw it away, but then took a moment to examine it, particularly the hole in the forehead where the gem had been, but it was now cracked and broken into pieces. As Dipper stared down at the chalk white cranium of the man he and Mabel had come to investigate, he couldn't help but feel very disappointed at the fact that their search for answers had once again come up short and they found nothing. Dipper chuckled a little, half-hoping the skull that he was holding would just open up its mouth and tell him all the answers he was looking for.

However, it was then that Dipper spotted something strange. Looking at the teeth of the skull, he noticed that one at the very back of the mouth was false. Tapping his finger against, he realised it was hollow and there was a distinct rattling sound coming from inside.

His curiosity overcoming his disgust, Dipper pried open the jaw of the skull and with a slight tug, pulled out the fake tooth. Examining it, he could see that it was made of some kind of metal, with a tiny latch built on the side. He turned the latch to the side and the top half of the fake tooth opened up like a lid, revealing a hidden compartment. Inside the compartment was rolled up piece of black plastic material. Taking out the material, Dipper delicately rolled out the plastic a few inches. Though it seemed to be blank, upon closer inspection, Dipper could make out what looked like tiny picture frames. Seeing this, he immediately deduced that this was a roll of film, the same kind used in old projectors. Before he could think about what this could mean, he heard Mabel's voice calling for him in the distance.

"Dipper, are you coming?"

"Yeah, yeah, coming" he called back. Feeling a renewed sense of excitement, the same kind he had felt when he first discovered the Journal, Dipper tucked the roll of film into his pocket and followed after Mabel.

* * *

**As always, hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review and peace out**

**PS(Does anyone mind if the chapters are longer or shorter?). Also, on suggestion from a reviewer, I updated the summary. Anyone like it better or did you prefer the old one? **


	15. Battle in the Cemetary, part 2

From up high in the air, Vincent watched in seething anger as Dipper and Mabel had just defeated his creation. Reeling with disbelief at the fact they had bested him yet again, he clenched his knuckles, preparing to enter the fray himself this time.

"Think you've won huh?" he said challengingly, his eyes already glowing. "Think you're safe? Well, we'll see who-whoa!"

Vincent didn't finish whatever he was about to say because in that same moment, he unexpectedly dropped down a couple of feet in the air from where he had been floating, without any warning, which caught him by complete surprise. He soon managed to steady himself in the air and tried to hold his position, but then a second later, he dropped again, and then again, as if his power was being turned on and off.

Eventually Vincent reached the ground again, landing beside the grave he had dug and coffin he had trapped Gideon inside, which was still shaking from within. He planted his legs on the hard ground, as soon as he did, he couldn't stop them from shaking, until he then dropped down onto his hands and knees.

Vincent let out a gasp, as he could feel a sudden wave of sweat was forming on his forehead, his vision going a little blurry and his breathing was steadily becoming heavier with each pant. Lowering his head a little, he realised that the full effect of his little stunt was beginning to take its toll on his fatigue. With a heavy groan, he pushed himself back to his feet, wiping some of the sweat from his forehead.

Looking into the distance, he could see Dipper and Mabel exiting through the gate. Though still feeling vengeful, Vincent decided that it would be too risky to attack them in a weakened state, so he would have to settle it later. He turned around, but then spotted something down at his feet. It was the black sweater Mabel had taken off and abandoned earlier. Gazing down at the sweater with a melancholy expression, he picked it up, folded it and carefully tucked inside his cape. Walking over to the coffin, Vincent stifled another groan as he picked it up over his head and carried it with him as he flew off.

* * *

Later, in the middle of a small clearing in the woods, Vincent was frantically pacing up and down in an agitated state. Behind him was the coffin he had brought, which still remained unopened.

"Okay, calm down, calm down" he told himself, rubbing his temple. "Just think for a moment. They were in my house and they knew about the grave. What else could they have discovered? Do they know about my plans? Maybe _he_ told them? I figured he would try to stop me again, but why didn't he come himself? What he's been up to these past thirty years?"

Vincent growled deeply, his temper on the verge of flaring again. The one thing he couldn't stand above anything was when things weren't going as he planned, when something or someone kept setting him back from his goals. He growled again, as he walked back and forward, feeling angry, frustrated, exhausted and most of all, hungry

"Those stupid twins" he cursed. "I should have eliminated them both when I had the chance. They could threaten everything I've worked for. I even lost the jewel as well! And that _girl_" he added, with pure loathing. "How dare she…"

Vincent was brought out of his introspective when the coffin behind him started to shake and rattle. After a few seconds, the lid burst open and Gideon rolled out from the coffin, desperately gasping for air, his perfect white hair now messy and soaked in his own sweat. Catching his breath, he looked up at Vincent

"You!" he snapped angrily. "What is wrong with you?! You locked me in there! I almost suffocated!"

"Yes, _almost_" Vincent muttered coldly. "Did you find the knife?"

"No!" Gideon said, completely livid.

"Then why are you talking to me?" Vincent said curtly, turning his back on Gideon.

"What in the world happened back there?" he demanded. "Why did you lock me in there?"

Vincent didn't answer and looked like he was doing his best to completely ignore Gideon as he continued to rub the sides of his head in concentration. However, this didn't sit well with Gideon.

"Excuse me!" he yelled even louder. "I am talking to you! If you think you can just ignore well then you are sadly mistaken boy. No one ignores Gideon Charles Gleeful. Now I demand your complete and undivided attention this instant!"

Vincent finally stopped his pacing and turned around to acknowledge Gideon, with a tired expression. "I do realise that you must really love the sound of your own voice. But do you think you can, I don't know, uh, shut up for like _five seconds?!_ I am trying to think here!" Vincent then went back to his pacing, infuriating Gideon even more.

"Argh! I should have taken my chances in prison!" he shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. "This whole alliance has been a waste of time. You are a _worthless_ ally!"

Vincent immediately came to a halt once again, with his back still to Gideon, only this time, it was more like a flinch, as if he had just been struck by something and his whole body suddenly tensed up. Very slowly, he lowered his hands to his sides and rigidly started to flex his fingers as if he had gotten the urge to strangle something. Sucking in a deep breath through his nose, he craned his neck to the one side which produced a very loud and unsettling cracking sound.

Gideon was still glaring angrily into Vincent's back, but he soon dropped his scowl when he took notice of what was going on around him. Several small rocks down at his feet were crushed into dust, the bark on the surrounding trees was peeling itself away and a sudden gust of wind shot up from nowhere. Gideon could also feel a strong pressure in the air that was pushing down on him. Looking back at Vincent, who hadn't moved a single inch, Gideon now got the impression he might have just made a very big mistake.

Vincent slowly turned his head in Gideon's direction. His expression looked quite neutral, but his eyes were shooting burning red daggers

"What…. did you just call me?" he said coldly.

"Umm" Gideon said, already losing his nerve. "I, uh, I…don't really, recall anything particular that I may-"

"What did you call me?" Vincent said again, cutting over him. He turned around fully and started advance Gideon, who was already to back away.

"Okay, I think I may have struck a small nerve here" Gideon said placidly, holding his hands up, trying to defuse the situation. "But you know words are just words, so why don't we forget I said anything and focus-"

In a blur of motion, Vincent crossed the distance between himself and Gideon and seized him by his collar. Vincent lifted Gideon up off the ground and pulling him closer, his anger now clear across his face.

"You….called me…..WORHTLESS!"

With a small heave, Vincent tossed Gideon straight upward into the sky. Gideon let out a high pitched scream as he was sent higher and higher. He ended his scream, just as he reached the full height of his ascent, but once he got up there, he was greeted by a floating Vincent, who was already waiting for him. In the split second that Gideon was suspended in the air, Vincent reached out and swiftly grabbed a hold of him by the throat.

"Say again!" he snapped. "Say again if you dare!"

Gideon couldn't say anything at this point other than the sound of gagging. Vincent's was gripping his throat so tight he couldn't even breathe.

"Can't talk?" Vincent said mockingly. "I am holding too tight? Maybe I should loosen my grip!"

Vincent slackened his fingers and almost allowed Gideon slip out from his grasp, but still held on tight enough to keep him falling. With his throat a little less constricted, Gideon was now able to form words, if only just barely

"Okay, I can see now that I was clearly out line with my previous comment and for that I apologize grievously" he said, putting on a sweet smile and sounding amazingly composed. "I know I probably haven't show this enough, but I do in fact deeply value and appreciate your service in this partnership, both as an equal and as a friend. I simply feel that some of my expectations have not been fully met. But I'm sure if we reconvene, say safely back on the ground, we might come to a better understanding"

Vincent stared at Gideon not looking the least bit swayed and then unceremoniously opened his hand, sending Gideon plummeting downward with another scream.

Gideon could see the ground fast approaching and was hit it face first when his whole body was suddenly tugged back like a buggy cord. Opening his eyes, Gideon could see that his nose was less than an inch from the touching the dirt. Vincent had flown back down and caught him by the ankle just in the nick of time. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed Gideon across the clearing and into a tree. But before Gideon could even get stand up, Vincent grabbed by his collar once again and pulled him up to his face.

"Do I have your undivided attention?" Vincent asked wryly. Gideon replied with a nervous chuckle and nodded.

"Good. Now let me make something very clear here, fat boy" he said in a low and dangerous voice. "We're not partners, we're not friends, and I think we can establish we're not equals". Vincent lifted up a nearby boulder and smashed it against a tree at a breakneck speed, snapping in half, which produced another whimper from Gideon.

"You mean as much to me as a piece of sludge that gets stuck to the bottom of my shoe" Vincent continued. "So from this point on, I don't want to hear any more of your caterwauling. All I want from you is complete and total obedience. I say jump…"

"I say how high" Gideon finished with a weak smile.

"No" Vincent replied, with a blank face, drawing Gideon closer. "You say, what cliff? And if you don't start pulling some weight around here, then the only thing your good for is lunch". Vincent snarled and snapped his fangs just above Gideon's neck, causing him to nearly sequel in terror. Vincent then roughly threw Gideon back to the ground.

"Yes, yes. You got it" Gideon said, quickly getting back to his feet, smiling like a typical sycophant. "From now on, you have my total and utmost compliance".

Vincent didn't look particularly pleased with Gideon's new attitude, but seemed to accept as he turned away from him. But while Vincent wasn't looking, Gideon dropped his smile and gave him a menacing glare from behind. "For now" he said, under his breath. Clearing his throat, he spoke out loud again. "So what are we going to do now?"

"The time has come to find the final Journal" Vincent said.

"Excellent" Gideon said, his face flushed with excitement, but then paused with uncertainty. "Wait, you know where it is?"

"_He_ has it" Vincent hissed. "In that house of his, that 'Mystery Shack'. And I'll tear it ground to find it. And then I'll finish off those Pine twins of his. No one will interfere with my plans"

"And I'll be by your side through the whole endeavour, so don't you worry my friend" Gideon said in his friendliest tone, patting Vincent's shoulder affectionately. Vincent regarded him as if he were some kind of annoying fly.

"But anyway, it's getting late or in your case _early_" Gideon chuckled. "So why don't you head off to bed and I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Fine". Vincent moved away from Gideon and prepared to fly away, but paused for a second.

"Oh, and Gideon?" he said. "Just one more thing

"Yes?"

"If you ever call me worthless again, I'll tear out your puckered little throat and use your head as a sock puppet. And _that_, I can assure you" he finished with a look that meant he was deadly serious. Serious enough that Gideon could only smile and wave back with a terrified smile and then as soon as Vincent was gone, he fell backwards with a faint.


	16. Movie Night, part 1

"Easy, easy" Dipper said, keeping himself absolutely focused. He was sitting crossed leg on his bed with the roll of film he had found inside Acton Abendroth's skull laid out in front of him, carefully wrapping the delicate roll of plastic into a larger film reel. When he was finally done, Dipper held up the film reel for a quick inspection and then placed it inside the circular container with satisfaction

"Great, now all I need is a projector" he said. Getting off the bed, he went down the hall to a small closet where Grunkle Stan had told him that he kept an old movie projector that he could borrow. However, when Dipper opened the closet, he found that the projector was nowhere to be found. Heading downstairs, he took another look in the living room and then the kitchen. Growing a bit discontent, he continued to wander around, wondering where the projector might be. He then got an answer, when he saw Mabel casually wheeling the very object right past him and into the living room.

"Uh, Mabel, what are you doing with the projector?" he asked, following after her.

"I'm borrowing it for our traditional family movie night!" she answered happily, moving the TV set out of the way and setting the projector in the middle of the room.

"Movie night?" Dipper repeated.

"Yeah" she said, adjusting the projector's position on its stand. "You, me, Grunkle Stan and Soos are gonna sit around the living room together and watch some old timey and cheesy movies. Look". Mabel produced a small stack of old movie reels and displayed each one in turn to Dipper.

"_CasaRomatica_ for me, _Resident Crutch_ for Grunkle Stan. _Night of the Living-Impaired_ for Soos. He says that these really relatable to him now. And I even picked a nerdy movie just for you!"

Mabel held up another movie, this one with a label reading, '_That Time the Earth Stopped Moving and Everybody was like Whaaa?_'. Dipper stared at the label for a second and cleared his throat.

"Okay, yes, while that is in fact the greatest science fiction movie of all time" he said rather pointedly. "It's beside the point. I really need to use projector first. I need to watch the film that I found inside Acton Abendroth's skull."

"Oh you can watch tomorrow" Mabel said dismissively. "What's the rush?"

"Mabel, this could be really important in finding out how to stop Vincent. He's still on the loose and might be coming after us again"

"That's why I figure we should a movie night" she said. "All this vampire stuff is making us all really tense. We need to relax and have some real fun as a family once in a while. Not spending our whole summer fighting the forces of evil. Ooooh" Mabel waved her hands in the air in a spooky manner, playfully trying to make light of the situation.

Dipper did not seem to be moved by this. "Mabel, Vincent is _dangerous_" he said, sounding very serious. "He's a threat to us and maybe everyone in Gravity Falls. He's probably out there right now, planning something. We need to be thinking about how to stop him. I can't just waste time watching movies while he's still at large"

"But we can't miss movie night" Mabel said despairingly. "It's our tradition!"

"How is it a tradition when this is the first time we're doing it?" Dipper asked frankly.

"Because I also have a steady tradition of not breaking traditions before we start the tradition" Mabel said proudly. "And that's also tradition that I'm starting right now. And I'm starting another new tradition that whenever you start to argue with me, I'll just pretend that the only thing I can hear you saying is 'Good idea Mabel!'"

"Seriously?" Dipper said, deadpanned.

"Yes, it is a good idea!" Mabel said, smiling broadly. "Thank you Dipper. Now if you don't mind, I've got to get the snacks ready. And feel free to keep telling me what a good idea that is"

Mabel briskly walked past Dipper, who could only sigh and slumped his head down in defeat. "Well, I guess this ends just like every other argument we've ever had, so I shouldn't be that surprised. Fine, movie night it is"

* * *

A couple hours later, Mabel had almost finished setting the living room up for the movie night. A mountain of snacks and drinks had been prepared in the kitchen, the seats were arranged for everyone and the projector was ready to go with the first movie of the evening. Dipper and Mabel were in the living room, and Soos was in the kitchen getting the snacks. The only one missing was Grunkle Stan. He promised Mabel that he would join them for the night, but now he was running late from wherever it was he had disappeared to. In was another few minutes before Grunkle Stan finally appeared in the doorway. For some reason he looked quite exhausted.

"Where were you for the last two hours?" Dipper asked him as he entered the room.

"Uh, on the….toilet" he replied vaguely.

"For two hours?" Dipper said dubiously.

"Yeah, don't go in there for a while. It's one of the side packages of getting old. You basically lose all bodily functions and then your mind goes to mush. Looking forward to that part" Stan finished with a cynical expression. He plopped himself down in his armchair, heaving a sigh. Mabel walked up to him and thoughtfully wrapped a blanket over his legs.

"Don't worry Grunkle Stan" she said soothingly, while handing him a soda. "When you're so old you can't even move, I'll make sure to put you in a really nice old folks home"

"Is the projector ready" Stan asked, sipping his drink.

"Yup, I got the movies all lined up" Mabel said. "First we watch my movie, then yours, then Soos' and then finally Dipper's movie"

"Why do we have to watch my movie last?" Dipper asked.

"Cause by then we'll have seen our movies. That way we can ditch you and we won't have to stick around to watch your nerd fest" Stan said, pretty cruelly

"Haha, real funny" Dipper replied with a slightly bitter tone of sarcasm.

"Haha, yeah…funny" Mabel said with a smile, though for some reason she was making sure to avoid Dipper's eyes. "Where is Soos with those snacks?" she said very loudly.

"Oh, I can't wait for _Resident Crutch_" Stan said gleefully, resting back in his armchair. "It was my all-time favourite movie. Who would have thought that Crutch's last words Squeaky, was really the name of the old swing set he used to play on with his long lost tw-"

Grunkle Stan abruptly caught himself in his own words. He took a nervous glance around the room, as Dipper and Mabel took notice of his odd behaviour.

"I mean, uh, cause he had lotsa money and stuff. I've never been on a swing set before, those things are death traps!" Stan said quickly. "Stop asking questions!"

Dipper and Mabel both looked taken back by Stan's sudden outburst. Before they could say anything else the front doorbell rang.

"Uh, I'll get that" Dipper said, wanting an excuse to leave. After he was gone, Mabel walked over to Grunkle Stan's chair and rested her arms and chin down on the armrest of the chair, looking up at him with a sweet expression.

"This is gonna be a great night Grunkle Stan" she said. "All of us together as a family"

"Yeah, it is gonna be great isn't" Stan said, his voice becoming softer. He put on a hand on Mable's head and playfully ruffled her hair. Behind them, Soos entered the room, his arms and pockets filled to the brim with food.

"Got the snacks ready dudes" he said.

Mabel jumped from the armrest, as Soos started to set the snacks down on the nearby table. "Okay, everything is in order" she cheered. "Time to start out traditional, super cool, best and most awesome family movie night-"

Just as she was about to finish her statement, Mabel turned around to the doorway of the room. The smile that was on her face dropped faster than a stone, her arms falling down to her side and her jubilant enthusiasm replacing itself with numb shock, when she saw Dipper entered the room with Pacifica.

"Hey Mabel" he said. "Are we ready to start yet?"

Mabel didn't respond. She just stared at Dipper standing beside Pacifica and in the second she realised that all her work to make this the perfect evening for everyone was about to go down the drain.

"What is she doing here?" Mabel and Grunkle Stan said in unison, the latter doing it with more aggression.

"I…. invited her" Dipper replied with a simply shrug.

"You invited her" Mabel repeated, sounding close to horrified. "Why did-?"

"Why the heck did you invite her for?" Stan demanded, getting out of his chair, walking past Mabel. "What does she need to join our movie night for? She's probably got her own private movie theatre in that mansion she lives in, where she can watch all the movies she wants on some a giant big screen with a surround sound"

"Grunkle Stan, you shouldn't just jump to conclusions like that" Dipper said, disapprovingly.

"Well actually, I _do_ have a private movie theatre with a big screen and surround sound" Pacifica said, sounding just a little smug. "And it also has chocolate fountain and water slide and a fireworks launcher and-"

"You're not helping me a good case here" Dipper muttered back to her with an annoyed look.

"See? She's got her own really great movie theatre" Stan said. "She can go have her own fancy movie night at her own fancy house. Let back home so she can laugh how she's better than the rest of us. Besides, nobody wants her here"

"Um, I'm standing right here" Pacifica said, with some indignation

"Good, I didn't want to raise my voice" Stan said coldly.

"Uh, I think what Grunkle Stan means" Mabel chimed in with a kinder tone. "Is that this is a kinda private thing for us, you know, and we wouldn't want Pacifica feel awkward or unwelcome, so maybe-"

"What up Pacifica" Soos walked in front of Stan and Mabel. "Great to see you"

"Hey Soos, great to see you too" she replied back pleasantly. She raised her hand up and exchanged a high five with Soos. They then had a casual fist bump, which was followed by a string of laughter between the two of them

Seeing this, Dipper looked back at Mabel with a satisfied look. Mabel on the other hand, looked a little lost for words.

She lanced nervously at Pacifica and then to Dipper, scratching the back of her head as she tried to pick her words carefully. "Dipper, I really don't think it's a good idea for Pacifica should be here. No offense" she added quickly toward Pacifica. "But I was hoping this would just be the four us, you know?"

Pacifica seemed a bit troubled by Mabel's words, but before she could say anything herself, Dipper spoke up instead.

"You invite Candy and Grenda here all the time. Why can't I invite one of my friends?" he said defensively.

"Yeah, right, she's your friend?" Stan saidskepticallyy.

"Well, yeah, she is my friend" Dipper said, crossing his arms firmly. "And I say she stays". Dipper locked eyes with Grunkle Stan who was glowering back down at him, but he didn't waver. After a few tense seconds, Stan turned away from Dipper.

"Uh, fine" he groaned, reluctantly. "But it'll be twenty bucks admission". He extended his open palm to Pacifica expectedly.

"Twenty bucks?" Pacifica said. "I have to pay to get in?"

"This is my house" Stan said, still holding his palm out. "Everything in here cost something for somebody, so fork over"

"The rest of us didn't have to pay" Dipper pointed out

"That's because you're broke and I take this, along with everything else out of Soos' pay check" Stan said. Pacifica glanced over at Dipper, who shrugged back in embarrassment. She rolled her eyes in disgust and handed Stan the money, who took it without hesitance.

"Alright lets' get this thing started" Stan said, pocketing the money. He fired up the projector and took his seat in his arm chair. Dipper walked into the middle of the room and took his seat on the floor in front of the projector screen. He then offered Pacifica a seat next to him on the carpet. She was just about to sit down beside him, Mabel suddenly grabbed her by the arms.

"Oh I forget to mention another part of our tradition". She pulled Pacifica off to the far end of the room. "It's that guests sit way over here". She then ran back over to Dipper, grabbed him by the arms and dragged him to the opposite end of the room. "And you sit way over there. Alright so now nobody move and we can enjoy our movie night"

* * *

With hard thud and a small yelp, Gideon was dropped onto the roof of the Mystery Shack, rattle the wood beneath him. He almost rolled down off the roof in the process due to its slant, grabbing onto the edge of the sign at the last second. From up above, Vincent drifted down beside him, standing perfectly balanced on the slope of the roof. Gideon then hoisted himself up from the sign, getting into a more secure position

"Hey, watch where you're dropping me!" he snapped angrily at Vincent. He soon changed his tone, however, when he caught the glare in Vincent's eyes.

"I mean….we don't want to make too much noise, in case they hear us" Gideon chuckled quietly. Vincent didn't say anything and just moved down to the nearest window. Behind him, Gideon had to hold tightly to the titles of the roof, carefully sliding down after Vincent, trying to avoid falling. Which he reached him, he already opened the window

"So if you don't my asking, what's the plan?"

"You will look for the Journal, while I keep the Pines family busy" Vincent said, flexing his fingers. "And if you find it, you will give it to me first. Understand?"

"Yes, yes" Gideon said quickly. "I'll give it to you first, as long as I get in the end"

"Good. Now it's to put an end to-"

Vincent was brought to stop in mid-air just before he could cross the threshold of the open window. His whole body just ran into something very hard and solid, his face was scrunched up against what looked like nothing but thin air. Floating backwards, Vincent shook his head in a daze. He then made another attempt at the window, but once again, he blocked by an invisible wall that seemed to be hanging in front of the open gap. He tried to reach out with his hands, but found that no matter how hard he pushed he couldn't get them inside.

"What's wrong?" Gideon asked him. Vincent didn't seem to be able to give an answer. Instead, he flew down to another window and tried to enter it, but he was blocked again. He then tried again at another window with the same result. Then at the door on the porch, but every time he tried, he kept hitting an impenetrable force field. Finally, he floated back up to Gideon and looked at the first window with a curious expression. Before he could give an objection, Vincent grabbed Gideon by the back of his prison collar and held him in front of the window.

"Stick your hand in there"

Gideon did as he said, effortlessly stuck his hand through the window without any trouble. Vincent pulled him out and placed him back on the roof.

"So what is it?" he asked.

"It's a barrier" Vincent said, knocking the space in the window with his hand. "It's similar to the seal that was on the coffin. It's kind of thing that can keep me out"

"How did it get here?"

"He must have put it up" Vincent said. "He knew I was coming for him. Change of plan". Vincent turned around to face Gideon. "You'll have to in there by yourself".

"Me? But how am I supposed to get by unnoticed?"

"Because you'll have this" Vincent reached into cape and pulled out a small brown pointed top hat in his hand.

"What is that supposed to be?" Gideon asked.

"It's the hat of an Invisible Wizard" Vincent explained.

Gideon didn't give any reply to this. He just stared at hat for a moment, and then at Vincent. "The hat….of an invisible….wizard?"

"Yes" Vincent said, straight faced. "Put this hat on and you'll be invisible"

"Really?" Gideon said, unable to hide his skepticism

"Just put it on" Vincent said, wearily.

Gideon placed the wizard's hat on his head and as soon as he did, he literally disappeared into thin air. Gideon looked down at his hands and body which was completely gone, making gasp with surprise. He reached up to take the hat off which turned him visible once again, which made him giggle like a little girl. Gideon started to pull the hat on and off repeatedly with great amusement, going back and forward between visible and invisible. Taking the hat off again, Gideon was now gushing with excitement, as if he just got a new toy. He then settled his eyes on Vincent's cape, gazing at with a fascinated expression.

"What else do you have in there?" he asked, pointing at the black cape.

"What don't have in here is the final Journal" Vincent said impatiently. He snatched the hat from Gideon and roughly pressed it on his head, turning him invisible once more. Vincent then grabbed an invisible chunk of his body and lifted him into the air beside the window.

"Now go get it" Vincent tossed Gideon straight through the window, which produced a loud crashing sound when he landed inside, which luckily for them was drowned out by the sound of the movie being played downstairs.


	17. Movie Night, part 2

**Hello again. Super sorry for the long update. Things have been a little hectic as I've currently been working almost full time, so I don't have as much free time to write as I once did. I have also been giving some more thought to abandoning this story, mainly because I'm disappointed at how long it's taken me to update again and the fact that I don't want to leave my other stories hanging as well since I can only focus on one at a time. And also, the most recent episodes of Gravity Falls have left me very broken hearted :(**

**Anywho. This chapter was supposed to be longer, but I decided to cut it into two parts in order to update faster because I was worried that if I put it off any longer I'd never get an update done. So the next chapter is just the second half of this one, but the chapter after that is in question. **

**See, I'll either follow straight on from this part of this story, or I can do a special flashback chapter, that shows us about Vincent's past and how exactly he met Ford before he was sucked into the portal. I plan on posting that chapter and others like it in the future anyway, but I haven't decided if now is the best time. Please let me know in the reviews, which you'd prefer**

* * *

The projector flickered loudly on its stand as the delicate strip of film ran through the sprocket, with the internal light mechanism illuminating each frame of the movie _CasaRomatica _onto the white projection screen

The movie was running near its climax. Though it was a pretty old black and white flick, everyone in the room seemed to be content enough with the movie, enjoying it with passing interest at least. Mabel on the other hand, was completely enamoured by the motion picture playing out in front of her, sitting closer to the screen than anyone, her eyes glued to the man and woman standing on the runway.

"_You've got to get on that plane, Sarah" the man in the trench coat said. He reached into his pocket and handed Sarah a set of documents. "Here. Take these letters of transit signed by Sergeant MacGuffin. I don't exactly know how they work or where I got them, but they're what advanced the series of events that have led us to this romantic point in time. And in the end, that's all that matter right?"_

"_But what about us Roy?" she asked._

In front of the screen, Mabel was now holding Waddles out in her arms, mirroring the actor's performance and mouthing the words being recited.

"_We'll always have Minnesota. But where I'm going you can't follow. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not two weeks from now or on your mother's birthday, but eventually you'll regret staying with me in this occupied warzone, country that I'm planning on escaping as well, and leaving your husband who was really kind of bland part of this love triangle and everybody will say we're the better couple anyway"_

_Sarah and Roy then shared one finally kiss, before she got onto the plane which took off moments later. Roy solemnly walked along the runway and up to the police Captain who was waiting for him at the end._

"_Well, Larry, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" he said._

_The Captain quickly pulled out a gun from his holster and pointed it at Roy, who raised his arms up in the air immediately. "You're under arrest"_

_The End_

"Ooooh! Soooooo romantic!" Mabel squealed, squeezing Waddles even tighter as the credits began to roll. "This movie taught me everything I need to know about finding the perfect guy. All I need is a plane, a piano, a war and to colour everything in black and white! I can't wait for the day when I find my true love and then be forced to leave him in a really tragic way."

"Pff. Hard to believe romance movies have gotten even lamer since those days" Stan grumbled, scratching under his armpit. "Nowadays they're all about some emotionally devoid girl who's got no sense of her own identity and gets obsessively attached to a dark, brooding, unromantic guy that controls and dominates every aspect of her life. Sad really. But enough about that" he said, his expression quickly turning to excitement. "Let's move on to my movie, which in my definitive opinion, will be the best one of the evening. Now to fire it up" Stan remained in his seat, expectantly. "And of course by that I mean, Soos, do manual labour for me!"

"That is the fate for which I was sculpted for Mr Pines" Soos said cheerfully, as he removed and replaced the roll of film inside the projector without hesitation or complaint.

On the other end of the room, when Mabel had started to gush over her movie, Dipper had discretely moved over to sit beside Pacifica without her noticing as he didn't want to put with another one of his sister's overdramatic performances. The two of them sat in silence during the run of the movie, a bowl of popcorn resting on Dipper's lap.

"You know, I've been thinking of getting a trench coat for myself to wear" Dipper said after a moment's thought.

"A trench coat?" Pacifica repeated. "Why?"

"A trench coat is the standard feature of every hardboiled mystery solving detective" Dipper answered, while eating some popcorn. "Feels like it would be the next appropriate step for me"

"Just when I thought you couldn't get a worse sense of fashion" Pacifica joked. "Maybe you should also get a deerstalker hat and magnifying glass while you're at it"

"Don't mock the classics" Dipper said, briefly flashing her a stern look. His expression quickly softened again, as he then casually offered Pacifica the bowl of popcorn. "Want some?"

"Oh, thanks" she said, taking the bowl out of his hands. Pacifica picked up some popcorn and briefly held it in her hand, eyeing it curiously. "So this is that, ah… _shaw-ring_ thing you were talking about before?" she asked Dipper, still sounding genuinely uncertain of the concept.

"Oh yeah, _shaw-ring_" he replied, with a slightly derisive tone in his voice. "It's that thing that friends do together. We also do things like saying _sow-ry_ when we do something bad to somebody. And sometimes, we give each other _comply-meants_ to be nice. And sometimes we just have regular every day, _co-verse-ations_ with each other. I'm going too fast for you?"

Pacifica gave Dipper wryly grin in return. "Oh no, I think I get it. And what you're doing right now must be _saw-casm_"

"No, no" Dipper said, chuckling despite himself. "I am being totally_ sewious_. _On-nest_, I swear!"

"Haha, you are such a _dowk_" Pacifica giggled, punching Dipper in the arm. Unable to contain himself anymore, Dipper broke into a fit of uncontrolled laughter and was soon joined by Pacifica. This display didn't go unnoticed by Mabel, who was now staring at her brother and Pacifica with an angry look of disapproval. Quick as a heartbeat, she sprinted over to where they were sitting and let out a huge obnoxious laugh, which caught the two of them off guard, bringing their mirth to an end.

"Word play is fun!" Mabel said with a high pitched voice. "But I think you two have had enough popcorn, so no more _sharing_!" she added with emphasize as she pulled the bowl out of Pacifica's hands. But before she could get far enough away with it, Dipper grabbed the edge of the bowl and tried to pull it back.

"Hey, Mabel, come on. Don't hog it" he said, but Mabel just pulled on it harder.

"I said that's enough!" Mabel hissed through her teeth as she was now fighting with Dipper over the bowl, the two of them pulling at each end.

"Mabel, give it!"

"No!"

"You kids quiet down over there. My movie's starting" Grunkle Stan called from his chair, as the countdown of the film was almost over. The bowl finally slipped from Dipper's fingers which forced Mabel to topple backwards, her arms flinging the bowl overhead and sending the popcorn inside flying out into the air and down to the floor.

Only the popcorn didn't land on the floor.

In that exact second when the popcorn was about to reach the ground, when anyone in their right minds would have expected them to scatter in all directions across the wooden floorboards, every single piece of confection miraculously halted in mid-air, each one now hovering an inch above the floor. Dipper, Mabel and Pacifica, all had their eyes locked what just happened, completely forgetting what they were arguing over a minute ago. None of them said anything or made any sudden movements, as if they were waiting for something else to happen. And then something else did happen. The popcorn slowly started to rise up into the air, bouncing off each other like a string of tiny balloons. Mabel shared a quick glance over to Dipper, who was just as lost as she was, but there their surprise and confuse only increased when they look around at the rest of the room.

Several miscellaneous objects, pillows, books, lamps, slowly began to levitate off the ground up toward the ceiling. Soos was watching with a slacked jawed expression as the liquid contents of the soda can he was holding seeped out of the can like a blob in the air. Unperturbed, Soos picked up a nearby straw and began to suck at the floating blob.

In the middle of the room, the projector rose up off its stand, the film reel still running through the magazine. While in the air, the front end of the projector tilted itself downward, the light shining into the movie's images, casting them over on top of Grunkle Stan, who had remained in his chair and was now looking up at the floating projector with a frozen face of shock.

Over in the gift shop, a small eight ball was held suspended up in the air, moving from side to side. A second later, the air around the ball rippled like a kind of mist and then a small hand clasped around the ball became visible. Gideon gasped with fear at sight of own his hand. He looked down at his own body, which was now in full view for everyone to see

Putting his hand up to his head for confirmation, he realised that his newly acquired wizard hat was gone. Craning his neck up, Gideon could see that it was now drifting off into the air, heading for the ceiling as he began to hop up and down to reach it again.

Back outside, Vincent was lounging on his side, looking extremely bored, tapping his fingers impatiently against the tiled roof. He briefly thought about getting up to check for any sign of Gideon, but he realized that would be futile, seeing as how he wouldn't be able to see him coming, nor could he even get inside the shack himself. Stifling a groan, he tapped his fingers faster, feeling more agitated. However, he slowly brought his tapping to halt, when he suddenly noticed that the back end of his cape was floating up into the air of its own accord, as if caught under a breeze, despite the fact that there was absolutely no wind. Just as he turned his head around to look at this, Vincent suddenly felt a strange weightlessness come over his body.

He then looked back down and saw that the roof was several feet below him, moving further away from him. It only took Vincent another second to realise that he was levitating in the air. It wasn't that this sort of thing wasn't very typical for Vincent, but what really took him by surprise was the fact that it was seemed to be caused by something other than himself. Looking around the woods and clearing surrounding the Mystery Shack, he saw a number of rocks and loose branches had begun to rise up as well.

Vincent had no idea whatsoever what was going on, but just as quickly as the strange event happened, it stopped once again. Vincent had been so caught off guard by the return of gravity, that he didn't activate his own powers to keep himself from falling, but despite that, he still managed to land his feet firmly back on the roof. Taking another look around, he saw that everything that had risen up in the air had also come back down, as if nothing had ever happened.

"Did… I do that?" Vincent said aloud, looking down at his hands in bewilderment

Inside the living room, everything had also returned to normal as the items fell back to the ground, most of which was a high level velocity. The popcorn hit the floor just as they were originally supposed to. Soos' drink splashed down over his head like a bucket of water. The projector dropped back down onto its stand with a crash, which caused the roll of film inside to topple out.

"What _was _that?" Dipper said, sounding alarmed as he looked around the room for any more signs of the disturbance. Everyone seemed to be just as lost as he was over what had just transpired. However, Grunkle Stan in particular, looked as though the tax collector had just walked in through the front door again.

"Uhhhh….you know what I just remembered!" he said, hastily getting out of his chair. "That I…left the water running upstairs and then…. it caught fire. Better go and put that out!"

"But wait, what about our movie night?" Mabel exclaimed, as Grunkle Stan rounded to the door past her. "Are you coming back?"

"I'll be back in a little while, just as soon as I do the… excuse I made up" he yelled, practically running down the hallway without so much as a backward glance, leaving Mabel standing where she was, crestfallen.

Grunkle Stan made his way into the gift shop and slammed the door behind him as he made a bee line for the vending machine. But in his rush to get over to it, Grunkle Stan suddenly tripped over something very heavy, falling face first to the floor with a thud. Shaking his head, he looked down to his feet for the source of what had tripped him up but he saw absolutely nothing there. Though briefly befuddled by this, Grunkle Stan soon got back up again and without missing a beat, he entered the code into the vending machine, which activated the hidden door mechanism. Before entering, he took one more sweep around the room, making sure that one no watching as he disappeared behind the machine.

A few seconds later, there a came a small, high pitched and devilish little laughter, echoing in the empty room.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry if it's too short or uninteresting but I really wanted to get an update done. So anyway, please leave review, and I'll hopefully see you soon with the next chapter. Peace out**


	18. Girl Talk

**Okay, so I haven't decided to abandon this story just yet. I am planning to go up to chapter twenty at least and see how things feel after that. I have some time off this week, so I can write a bit faster. Also, just an observation here, but I can't help but notice a distinct pattern in that I only get about two reviews every chapter, since the number of reviews I have is nearly double the amount of chapters I have, so I guess I'll hit forty at chapter twenty**

**Also, since nobody really said anything last time, I think I'll just put off the Vincent flashback chapter for later.**

**And finally, I hope everyone is super excited for Weirdmageddon that comes out today, which of course will be infinitely better than the any of the garbage I write here, so look forward to that.**

**Anywho, onto my garbage.**

* * *

"Come on, come on!" Stan yelled, as he was almost randomly smashing buttons on the control panel in a wild panic. Inside the main chamber, the triangle shaped portal was surging with power, the rift in the centre of it growing larger, the air being sucked up inside like a vacuum. An alarm began to blare overhead as several warning lights displayed on the computer screens. With sweat beating down his forehead, Stan frantically fiddled with more of the machine's mechanism from inside the booth, pulling levers and flicking various switches, desperately trying to reverse what was happening. After a few more tense seconds, the alarms finally died stopped as the portal became stable once more, slowly powering itself down. Stan fell backwards in his chair, letting out an exhausted sign of relief, but he still looked up the portal with concern. He reached into the shelf above the desk and pulled out Jounral#1.

"I don't understand. I followed the instructions exactly" he said, holding the book open. "Why is the portal destabilizing now?! I just need to last a few more days. What could be causing this?" Stan briefly glanced up at the picture he had of Dipper and Mabel on the shelf, with a sad expression, before shaking his head, becoming determined once again. "Gotta keep working it. Can't let it end now. Not when I'm so close"

Stan got up out of his chair and went into the portal chamber, beginning to work on the external machinery. He had become so focused what he was doing, that when he got up, he didn't notice the faint red glow, pulsating out from the drawer of the desk, slowly becoming stronger.

* * *

Mabel was sitting alone in Grunkle Stan's chair, hugging her knees to her chest and resting her head down on them, with a despondent face. She cast her gaze up to the clock on the wall and saw that it was already well over an hour since Grunkle Stan left to do whatever he was going to do. The projector was still on the stand, but Mabel had insisted on waiting for Grunkle Stan to return before they resumed watching. By now everything was quiet as it seemed like the excitement of the evening was thoroughly drained at this point.

After another few minutes, Dipper came back into the room, after showing Pacifica where the bathroom was. He spotted Mabel in the armchair. With a great swell of reluctance and sympathy he walked over to his sister.

"Mabel, can we just start the projector again?" he said. "It's getting late"

"No" she said, in a pretty firm voice. "We're gonna wait till Grunkle Stan gets back, then we start"

"Mabel, face it" Dipper said, with dry cynicism. "He ditched us"

"He wouldn't leave us like that!" Mabel cried in denial. "He said he'd be back, so he'll be back. I know he will

"Yeah, okay, sure" Dipper said, clearly not with the same level of confidence as his sister. "Well, if we gonna wait anyway, can't we at least watch my secret movie?" he asked, holding up the film reel he had prepared earlier. "I was going to watch this after we're done, so why not now?"

"No!" Mabel snapped back at him, jumping off the chair. "No mystery stuff! The reason I put together this night was for us to spend family time together. A nice, normal, family night together. That's it. I had everything planned out. We were all gonna watch our movies together, have snacks, tell jokes, maybe have a braid train and a couple of pillow fight duels. The last thing I wanted was for you to spoil everything by inviting in more weirdness. Or by inviting anyone _else_ for that matter" she added with

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dipper said, a bit sharply.

"I'm saying that everything was going great until you brought Pacifica over here" Mabel said with a note of accusation.

"That's what you're annoyed over?" Dipper replied incredulously. "What is the big deal? So what if I invited Pacifica here? It's not like it's her fault Grunkle Stan disappeared. I was just trying to be nice to her, what's wrong with that?"

"Because…" Mabel seemed lost on her own words for a moment. "Because…. she's not part of _our _family, okay?" she said, her voice becoming angry once again. "And we don't have to treat her like she is. It's like when we have a family photo, or a family picnic, or a family-eat-ice-cream-all-day-till-we-get-sick type of thing! It's stuff our family does. She's got her own super rich family to hang out with, so what does she need to come here for? She can have a family movie night with her own parents! We've had plenty of good times without her around and we can have good times without her butting in on us!"

Dipper didn't say anything back to Mabel. Instead, he just crossed his arms and stared at her with what seemed to be a mix embarrassment and shame. After a few seconds of staring, Mabel's face dropped straight from angry to guilty.

"Right behind me isn't she?"

Mabel slowly turned around to see Pacifica was indeed right behind her, holding a can of Pitt cola in her hand.

"So I guess it's not just rich people who like to close their gates huh?" she said coldly. She pushed her can into Mabel's hands and turned on her heel, heading right for the exit. She stopped just before she entered the hallway and turned around again.

"And by the way, your washroom service here stinks! There's was no mint in the dispenser and the washroom attendant didn't show up to dry my hands!" And with that anecdote, she exited down into the hallway and after that there came the sound of both the opening and slamming of the front door. Mabel had her eyes fixed on the spot where Pacifica had just been, looking and feeling even more upset than she had before.

"Thanks a lot Mabel" Dipper said, with as much disappointment as anger, which made her flinch slightly at his words. "The one time I try to act like a social person and you go decide to act like the obsessive, controlling jerk".

* * *

"What is taking that idiot?" Vincent muttered impatiently, pacing up and down the roof. He stopped for a minute and arched his neck backwards, looking up at the sky with as he let out a weary sigh. "Ugh, maybe I should consider getting more henchmen?".

Before he could any more serious consideration into this thought, he heard the sound of a door slamming shut down below him. Jerking his head back down, Vincent walked up to the edge of the roof and looked down below as he saw someone storming out of the front door of the Mystery Shack.

"Hello, what's this?" he said, interest perking up almost immediately

He narrowed his eyes to try and get a better look at the person in question. Though it was dark, he could make their details and he soon began to get a vague sense of recognition of the person in question. The front door was then opened again, as a second figure was now running up behind the first.

"Pacifica wait, wait!" Mabel stopped in front of Pacifica, holding up her hands desperately. "Just hold on a minute. You don't understand"

"I understand just fine" Pacifica replied, poking a finger in Mabel's chest, her tone unforgiving. "You don't want me around to ruin your stupid family movie night. Well that's fine then. Go on have fun with your brother and your creepy grand-muckle or whatever he's called. I won't be around to spoil it for you". She made a move to get around Mabel, she was quickly blocked once again.

"No, no, you weren't ruining it" Mabel said. "It's just that…well, I mean….". Mabel sighed and finally relented herself in shame. "Okay, the truth is that I did want this to be just a thing with me, Dipper and Grunkle Stan. I wanted us all to spend some quality family time together, cause you know… summer doesn't last forever. I mean, you can understand that right? It'd be same if was I interrupting you and your parents when you spend quality time together"

"Pff, like that would ever happen" Pacifica scoffed bitterly. "You couldn't ruin my 'quality fun' time with my parents even if you tried, since it only comes to about four minutes per day every day!"

Pacifica turned away from Mabel, who was giving her a stunned look in return. When she finally spoke again, there really was only one thing she could think to say. "You… you only spend four minutes a day with your Mom and Dad?"

Pacifica rubbed her arm a little and shifted her feet awkwardly. "Well, it extends to seven minutes on weekends, birthdays and legal hearings" she said, in an almost feeble manner. Shaking her head, she walked back to the Mystery Shack and flopped down on the porch, resting her head on her hands. Mabel stared back at her in silence.

"Okay, look" she said. "If we're both talking truths here, then the truth is, I've never had a 'family' movie night before. I've never had a family picnic or a family-eat-ice-cream-all-day-till-we-get-sick day. I had a lots of 'just me' movie nights, but I always wished my parents would maybe join me sometime. But they're always off somewhere buying stuff or showing off the stuff they buy, so I barely even see them, except when they bark orders at me" Pacifica bitterly kicked away a small stone on the ground.

"I guess…. it must get lonely in that really big fancy mansion huh?" Mabel said softly, taking a seat on the porch beside her.

"Yeah. Sometimes the servants hang out with me, but I think most of them just want to get in the cool crowd, you know?" Pacifica added. "And I've never had any brothers of sisters to play with, so I don't know what it's like to have a sibling. Must be nice" she said, sounding almost wishful about the prospect

"Yeah, it is" Mabel couldn't help but smile a little when she said this. "I mean, me and Dipper fight a lot and we don't always see eye to eye on things, but I've always been really grateful about having a twin. It's like a person who'd never leave you no matter what

The two of them sat in silence once again, still avoiding eye contact with each other. Mabel then broke the silence with another sigh.

"Pacifica, I'm sorry for what I said in there" she said, regretfully. " I didn't realise that your parents were even bigger jerks than you were"

"Hey, it's alright" Pacifica said with a small smile. "With all the stuff I said about you, I'd say I probably earned it. I understand"

"Weeeell" Mabel bit her lower lip and just kicked her legs in the air, avoiding Pacifica's eye. "The thing is….since we're doing this whole truth talking thing, I actually have _another_ truth to share. See, there was another, bigger reason why I didn't want to come over here"

Mabel twiddled her thumbs together, looking even more uncomfortable. Pacifica leaned in closer to her as the suspense gradually started to build as she was on the verge of speaking.

"Do you…. like my brother?" she finally blurted out. Pacifica just blinked in surprise at this question

"Um, yeah I like him. I said that before-"

"No, what I means is…do like him so much… that you'd get on a plane on a runway and then leave him forever kinda way?"

It took Pacifica a second to realise what Mabel was suggesting and nearly jumped back from her I shock. "What?! No! Mabel, I don't have a thing for your brother. What makes you say that?"

"Well, I just thought um….I didn't really much of the two you at first, but when I see the you and Dipper hanging out, it's like you're a lot nicer than what you used to be and you two seem like you enjoy being with each other now and I just thought that-". Mabel cut herself off, rubbing the back of head awkwardly.

"You thought we were going to start something together?" Pacifica finished. Mabel didn't give a reply, except for a guilty nod of the head. Pacifica smiled back at her with sympathy. "Hey, hey. Don't even worry it. There's nothing on between me and your brother. We're just friends, I swear. So is that why you were acting so weird…..er around us all the time?"

"I'm sorry" Mabel said once again, closing her eyes sadly. "Thing is, I've sorta been through a lot heart break this summer. And Dipper kinda has as well. That's why I was worried that he might be setting himself up for a fall if he started anything"

"What, you think I would just turn him down like a snobby rich girl or something?" Pacifica asked

"Uhhhhh…." Mabel literally couldn't think of anything appropriate to say to this

"Okay, point taken" Pacifica said sheepishly. "But Mabel I'm not the kind of girl who's looking for a committed relationship. I mean, we're twelve years old for crying out loud. Dipper is a really great guy and I'm happy that I got to be friends with him and you, but I'm not asking him to marry me or anything. Though my Dad did say a lot guys will marry me for my money"

"Good thing you're not an old lady though" Mabel jested, punching Pacifica in the arm. "Otherwise, I'd have to worry about Grunkle Stan wanting to date you!" Both Mabel and Paifica then broke both broke into a fit of very girlish giggles, the sound of which echoed into the night.

"Urgh. Girls" Vincent muttered under his breath, shaking his head some disgust. He was sitting on the edge of the roof, with one leg crossed over the other, his hand resting under his chin, his index finger pointing up on his cheek, listening to the entire conversation taking place below him.

"One thing though. Why are you so worried about who your brother decides to date anyway?" Pacifica asked Mabel, once they had stopped laughing.

"I guess, I feel like I'm obligated to watch for out Dipper, since we used to share a stomach together" Mabel answered with a straight face.

"Okay, gross" Pacifica said very briefly. "And?"

Vincent shifted his position a little as he leaned down even closer.

"And, I'd never say this out loud, cause its sappy and publicly embarrassing, but I really love Dipper a lot. He's my brother and he means more to me than anything else in the whole world" Mabel said, with the utmost sincerity anyone could muster.

As soon as Mabel had finished her statement, Vincent's eyes widened like saucers and mouth dropped open. For a brief moment he seemed to complete freeze up, becoming so stiff, he could easily have been mistaken for a statue.

"Vincent!"

"Aah! I didn't do it!" Vincent yelped, jumping off the edge of the roof, hovering out in the open air, his arms raised up in a defensive pose. He looked back behind him and saw nothing but an open window. A second later, Gideon materialised in the window, just as he removed his hat. Seeing who it was and realising that he was in a rather position, Vincent quickly recomposed himself, folding his cape in and raising his chin up in the air, as if trying to pretend nothing had happened.

"I mean, ah, what took you long?" he said, his voice commanding once again.

"You'll never guess what I just discovered" Gideon said in a hushed whisper. "Stanford has a secret door hidden behind the vending machine. I saw him go into right after everything started to float in the air. That must be where he's hiding the Journal!"

"A secret door?" Vincent said. "Did you get a look inside?"

"No. The door opens with a code and I wasn't able to see it. I tried waiting until Stan back out, but he hasn't come out since"

Vincent said nothing as he pondered this new piece of information. Rotating in the air a few times, he scratched his chin for a moment, before he opened his mouth again. "Okay, if I can't get to the Journal, then I'll make them bring it to me. Question is how?"

"And the answer is this" Gideon said with a twisted smile. "I happen to know exactly where Dipper Pines is going to be tomorrow."

* * *

Dipper had half a mind to go after Mabel, who herself had gone after Pacifica, but he restrained himself from doing so. Though he felt slightly guilty about doing this, there were a number of varying reasons that compiled he complied for his defense and in his mind they were perfectly valid. The first and foremost was that he felt this was a problem Mabel had made on her own and she should be the one to resolve it. The second and probably much more pressing, was that Dipper now had the perfect opportunity to see what was on the hidden roll of film he had discovered in the cemetery. No matter how hard Dipper ever tried, he could never resist the mystery solver instinct that he had been blessed/cursed with all his life. And lastly, although he knew it was a little petty, he couldn't help but get a small sense of satisfaction at finally being able to watch his secret movie after Mabel's constant refusals.

After finally setting the movie up in the projector, Dipper turned it on and quickly kneeled down in the middle of the floor, right alongside Soos, who was munching away at what was left of the popcorn

The images on the projector played themselves out, opening up with the setting of a darkened room, lit by a number of candles. The room was decorated by an assortment of ancient looking antiques. The camera was positioned, that its view was in front of a large bookshelf. In front of the bookshelf was a desk and sitting at the desk was a bearded man, with a long scar down over his right eye. Dipper immediately recognised the man from the photographs inside the notebook he had found in the secret chamber underneath the Voltaruss mansion; Acton Abendroth

"_Greetings" Abendroth said with a strong and dark voice, lifting his head to look up at the camera. He rose up out of his chair, walking out from behind his desk. "Whoever this is, if you are watching this recording, then it means that I have failed. What I am about to tell you may dictate the future of all mankind itself and-what is it?"_

_Abendroth was distracted by what sounded like someone clearing their throat. He seemed to be looking off in the direction of the man who was holding up the camera. He then looked downward and saw that his fly was open_

"_Oh, dang it!" He quickly put his back to the camera as he pulled up his zipper. "Okay, let's start again". The recording jumped forward a number of frames and Abendroth was now back in his chair just as he was before._

"_Greetings" he said once again. "Whoever this is, if you are watching this- Now what?" He was suddenly distracted by the buzzing of small bee that had flown into his line of sight and started to swat at it_

"_Okay more time!"_

_On the third take, Abendroth was in his chair for the third time. "Greetings. I-". Just as he stood up, he inadvertently knocked over one of the candles, which set fire to the sleeve of his jacket. With a yelp he started to slap the fire in a mad frenzy, trying to put it out._

"_Ah forget it, just keep going" he said in frustration, shaking off the last of the flames. "Okay long story short, my name is Acton Abendroth and I am a vampire hunter. Throughout history, spanning the globe, my family has been hunting vampires for generations. Our greatest foes were the Voltaruss family. A bloodline of the most foul and dangerous vampires in the world has ever known. We have kept them at bay for nearly five centuries, preventing them from fulfilling their twisted plans to-"_

The recoding abruptly seemed to freeze itself for a moment and roughly cut forward a few frames as if a piece of it was missing. It resumed again, with Abendroth's speech having already moved on to something else

"_-must be stopped at all costs. After a great deal of searching, my family and I have finally tracked them down to what I believe to be their place of origin". He walked over to a small map that was hanging on the wall and pointed at it. "Here, in a small and strange little town in the state of Oregon, called Gravity Falls. When myself and my family arrived here, we discovered that this town held the secret to their ultimate goal. But we were betrayed by those we thought may help us. And now I'm the only one left. I intend to face them one last time". He walked back over to his desk and leaned his hands down on the sides._

"_I must stop them, or at the least halt their plans for the next few decades. And in case I don't survive, I will leave to you, all of my remaining knowledge and resources so that you continue to combat this threat when I am gone"_

The camera moved back over to the map and zoomed in on a small section. Beside it was a set of coordinates and numbers scribbled on the edge, which Dipper wrote down almost immediately

"_This is our current location" Abendroth continued. "My safe house contains every piece knowledge we have gathered on vampire hunting and on the Voltaruss. Their history, their powers and weaknesses. Use these weapons, continue the fight and stop these evil monsters. Only when the last Voltrauss has been turned to dust, will the world be cleansed of their evil. Farewell and good luck"_

_Abendroth stared deeply into the camera as it drew on him, his face grim and bleak. He then let out a deep exhale, and slouched down a little_

"_Phew, I thought that was pretty good" he said in a much more casual voice to someone off screen, probably the camera man." I especially liked that part at the end. I kinda did little improv there with that cleansed of evil thing. What? The camera still rolling? Turn it off quick!"_

And with that the recording came to an abrupt conclusion, ending with Abendroth waving his hands at the camera in an almost embarrassing performance. The projector turned itself off, as the tape had been fully rolled out.

"Wow that movie had everything dude" Soos said, a fistful of popcorn in his hand. "A story, comedy, a guy with a beard. On a whole I'd give it four out of five stars for lagging in the middle there"

Dipper didn't appear to be listening to Soos, though then again he really didn't do that very often to begin with. He was looking up at the now blank screen, a wide grin of excitement and determination forming on his face. "Soos, I know what we're going to do tomorrow" he said.

"Build a roller-coaster in the yard?" Soos asked innocently. "Or learn about basic copyright infringement?"

* * *

"So Dipper is planning to go check out that vampire hunter's secret hideout tomorrow" Gideon finished. Vincent said nothing as he mulled this over.

"Hmm. So Abendroth planned ahead, did he? "

"So now we know where we can trap Dipper" Gideon said

A smile slowly crept its way onto Vincent's features, as he threw a small glance over his shoulder. "And I think I've just found the perfect bait"

"So let's go catch us a mouse shall we?" Gideon slowly started to chuckle in a sinister manner, and then he threw his head backwards, breaking out into a fit uproarious laughter. Vincent did nothing but stare at Gideon, nonplussed, as he continued his mad hysterics. Gideon abruptly brought himself to a halt when he noticed Vincent was looking at him.

"Um, aren't we doing an evil laugh together?" Gideon said.

"What?" Vincent said. "No. That's lame. What is even the point of laughing evilly in the air when you come up with an idea? Who are you even impressing with that?"

"It's meant to demonstrate how we are about achieve a malicious victory over our enemies and they don't yet realise it" Gideon said pointedly. "So the joke is really on them". Gideon promptly resumed his laughter and gestured for Vincent to join him.

Vincent didn't take the suggestion, instead rolling his eye in exasperation. With a small grunt, reached out and hoisted Gideon up by his collar, ending his laughter once again. "Just come on already. We got work to do!" he said, before shooting upward into the night sky.

* * *

**Hope you all enjoy Weirdmaggedon. I know I will.**


	19. Some say life is like a video game

"So I gotta ask, why do you have a key for this place?" Dipper said to Pacifica. He was standing beside her, along with Mabel and Soos, in front of the building that Dipper had tracked down thanks to by the message left in Acton Abendroth's recoding. Although once they got there, it wasn't quite what they had been expecting

"Bud and Larry's Ice Cream Store?" Dipper said, reading aloud from the decrypted sign, barely hanging above the door of the dilapidated shop.

"This shop used to be owned by my grandfather" Pacifica explained, her hands stuffed into her pockets. "He got as part of some business contract he had with the last person to own this place. After he passed away, my father kept it running for a while, but they finally shut it down a few years ago after some investigative reporters found out that all the cones and cups were being made in a sweat shop in Guatemalan"

Dipper turned back to Pacifica, giving her a weary look. She raised her hands up in a defensive manner. "I know, I know, but I'm working on it"

"Oh I remember this place" Soos said happily. "I came here all the time when I was a kid. Ice cream was my favourite meal of the day. So I had three times a day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. "

"So this was Abendroth's base of operations" Dipper said, surveying the run building with a critical eye. "Would not really be my first choice for an HQ if I was a vampire hunter"

"This exactly where I'd put my secret hideout if I was him" Mabel said with a straight face.

"Is it really?" Dipper asked his sister, his scepticism already getting the best of him.

"Nooooo!" Mabel gushed out, unable to contain her laughter. "I'd just take any reason to live in a freaking ICE CREAM STORE!"

Mabel snatched the key out of Dipper's hand, quickly unlocking the main door and shooting straight inside the building like a bullet. The others soon followed after her. Inside there wasn't much to speak off. All there was left the former establishment was some an old counter top, a broken and empty display cabinet for the ice cream, a few shelfs and a couple of broken cones scattered around the floor.

"Oh, what lost treasure is this!?" Mabel popped her head out from the top of the counter, holding up an old bucket of ice cream. She pried open the lid, which broke apart in her hand, releasing a cloud of dust. She picked up a dirty spoon from the counter and scooped up some of the pasty, grey ice cream from within, lifting it to her mouth. Before she could proceed any further, Dipper swiftly grabbed her by the wrist.

"Mabel?" he said sternly. "What have we discussed about you eating really old and expired food stuffs?"

Mabel lowered the spoon and looked down to the floor. "They give me bad digestion and induce horrific hallucinations" she answered quietly.

"Good". Dipper then carefully took the spoon out of her hand. "Put it down Soos" he said after a short pause, not even looking behind him as Soos had his own bucket of ice cream at the ready, with a spoon inches from his mouth.

"Alright, let's see what we can find" Dipper said, placing his hands on his hips, looking ready for action.

"You want to start with the secret door that's behind that shelf dude?" Soos offered casually, pointing at a nearby shelf. Giving him a brief questioning look in return, Dipper walked over to the shelf and with a small grunt, pushed it aside, revealing that there was indeed a secret door behind it.

"Whoa. Soos, how'd you know this was here?" Dipper asked, with a dumbfounded expression.

"One time when I was in here as a kid, I dropped my gummy bear behind this shelf and when I reached into get it, I found this door" Soos explained. "But to my deepest regret, I never could find that gummy bear". His face then turned to sorrow for a moment, but then brightened up once again. "Oh wait here it is". Soos bent down and picked up the candied treat, now covered in dust and quite possibly mould. He threw it into his mouth without a second thought.

Moving past that, Dipper drew his attention to the door in front of him. The door was made of metal, but there was no cover over it, which made the inside clearly visible, exposing a string of internal gears and cogs, like the inside of some huge machine. There was also no handle or key hole on the front, but there was a circular panel in the centre of the door.

Blowing away the dust, Dipper could see that the panel was actually a set of rings, each one with a distinct set of markings running down along it. Putting his hand on one, he realised that the rings were movable. Quickly getting the idea, Dipper started to rotate the rings, using the markings as a reference in order to line them in some kind of order. After a few attempts, he eventually rotated all the rings to form the image of a capitalized letter A which had a long spike going down its centre. As soon as the rings were in place, the gears inside the door started to turn and a few seconds later, the door swung right open to reveal a hidden staircase. Without much foreplay, the group traversed down the flight of steps, finding themselves in a long and typically foreboding, dark corridor.

"Okay, nobody make a move yet" Dipper said, scanning the hallway intently. "This place might be filled with booby traps. We should-". Dipper cut himself off when he heard Mabel let out a tiny giggling noise from behind. He glanced back at her and then cleared his throat before he resumed speaking.

"As I was saying, we should proceed with caution. There might a trip wire or hidden floor panel that activates a booby trap like a-"

Mabel snorted loudly, putting her arms over her mouth. Dipper turned around, glaring at her. "Is there a problem?"

"Noooo" she said with a smile

"So as I was saying, everyone just watch your step so we don't activate any…deadly traps" Dipper muttered, avoiding Mabel's eye. "One of us might have to go first, just to see if we set something off"

"If you need a sacrificial lamb, then I'll be your man" Soos offered. "Or mutton as the case may be"

Mabel surprised the others by walking ahead into the hall. "I say we just put our best foot forward and hope for the best. That's what I do every day and it's always turned out okay"

She took one brisk step forward and when she did, her foot sank right down into the floor with a loud click. Standing frozen for a moment, everyone could hear the sounds of more gears churning inside the walls. After a few tense seconds, a dozen slots opened up in the surrounding walls and a metal spike came shooting out of each one, all aiming for Mabel. With only an instant to react, she raised her arms up, bent her right knee down, twisted her lower back to the left, and craned her chin up, avoiding each spike by mere inches. Mabel now looked as though she was stuck in some kind of weird dance pose, the metal spikes jutting out from nearly every angle around her body, keeping her from moving in the slightest.

"Mabel" Dipper said as slowly and clearly as he could. "Don't….move…a….muscle"

"I….know….that…already" Mabel said through her gritted teeth.

"Just hold that pose for a minute. I think I can see a lever down there at the end of the hall, it might shut this off. We just have to reach the end, without setting any more bo-"

"Don't say it!" Mabel hissed immediately, her eyes fixed on the spikes surrounding her trying to hold her breath.

"Uh right okay" Dipper said. "Come on". He gestured to Soos and Pacifica to follow them, ducking underneath the spikes around Mabel.

"So we know that there are in fact…traps here" Dipper said, walking as carefully as he could. "Now we just need to be more cautious of where we step and-" _*click*_

Dipper snapped his head around in the direction of the noise and saw Pacifica had her foot planted down in another floor panel trigger. She looked back at Dipper and smiled awkwardly. "Hehe, Oops".

Before Dipper could even think of anything to say this, there was yet another clicking sound from behind. He turned again, and with no surprised whatsoever, he saw Soos had stepped on another panel.

"Oh man, that's bad huh dudes?" he said cheerfully.

Four more slots opened in the ceiling above and from them dropped down, four bladed pendulums that started swinging back and forward in a rhythmic pattern, with Dipper, Pacifica and Soos, caught in between each one.

Up ahead didn't look any better as an entire gauntlet of traps had just been activated. Rows of circular saw blades popped out of the walls, columns of rotating spiked pillars shot out of the ground, a slab of solid stone came down from the ceiling, slamming into the floor, and finally a trapdoor opened out at the end of the corridor, with a raging blast of fire erupting out of it every few seconds.

Although all that looked intimating enough, Dipper was more concerned about getting out of the current trap they were caught in. Both he and Pacifica were caught in between the swinging blades, doing their best not to move in any direction. Soos was lucky enough that he was only standing in front of the first pendulum.

"Nobody panic!" Dipper cried out, though very close to panic himself, as he back up a few inches away from the pendulums swing. "Just give me a second and I'll think of something""

"Hey wait a minute dudes" Soos said urgently. He was looking down toward the end of the corridor, watching the ballet of traps playing out in front of him, completely mystified, almost as though he was hypnotised by the display. In that instant, Soos' face went from his usual happy, absent minded self to that of a man on a mission.

"I have seen this moment in my dreams. All my life I have trained for this". Soos turned his hat around and backed up a few yards. Then without warning, he charged forward, going right into the path of the pendulums.

"Soos, wait stop!" Dipper cried at him. Soos stopped right in front of the pendulum and waited for it to swing by. Then fearlessly stepped in through it, dodging the blade completely and doing the same with each pendulum in turn, while chanting to himself.

"Forward, stop, forward, stop, forward, forward". In no time at all, he made it through the pendulums with no trouble, going right past Dipper and Pacifica still stuck behind him

But Soos didn't stop there. He kept up his pace and went right into the barrage of traps. For once, he seemed to know exactly what he was doing, as he somehow knew how to avoid each and every obstacle in his way. He ducked underneath the saw blades, side stepped in and around the spiked columns and rolled underneath the slamming slab as it struck, with the speed and grace of an Olympic acrobat, all the while narrating his actions out loud.

"Run six spaces, stop, crouch down, up eight spaces, roll, jump, jump, stop, left, left, right, left, right, jump, flip and-"

He came to the fire pit and just as the next blast of fire was about to come out, Soos jumped and flipped through the air, narrowly avoiding the blaze underneath him. He nailed the landing on the other side and was now standing at the end of the hallway, right in front of the lever. He pulled it down without haste, deactivating the booby traps. Once all the traps had been turned off, Dipper and Pacifica, as well as Mabel, now free from the spikes, walked down the cleared hallway and up to Soos, looking at him like he was

"Soos, how did you do that?" Dipper said in a quiet whisper.

"It's just like I always believe" he answered. "Life is like a video game. Though to be honest, all that running might be easier if power up cherries were real. I had no idea I could be so athletic". Soos paused for a moment as he placed a hand over his chest. "Huh. That's either an itch under my skin or a heart attack"

Deciding that it was just an itch, the group turned their attention to the door in front of them. Though a little shaken by what happened back there, Dipper was still feeling the rush of adventure inside his chest. He gulped with anticipation of what to expect next as he put his hand on the door.

* * *

**Okay, so once again this chapter was meant to be longer, but like with the last chapter, I cut this one in half mainly to get an update faster. The good news is that the second half isn't too far away. Now I asked this before, but do you mind if I make the chapters shorter like this or do you prefer longer ones? I like longer ones myself, but it takes me ages to write them and I do feel the pacing is a little better if I keep things shorter like, or do you think I shouldn't give up length just to get a faster update? Let me know what you think**


	20. Abendroth's Bunker

The door slowly churned open, with the expected eerie creaking noise that followed. Flashlight in hand, Dipper entered first as he normally did. Shining the light across the darkened room, he spotted what looked like a big metal bowl in front of him. Looking inside, he could see that there was some dry coal at the bottom, making him realize that this was a brazier. Lighting a match from his pocket, he threw it into the brazier which then went up a brilliant eruption of fire, bringing light to the whole room.

Taking a better look around at their surroundings, Dipper took of notice a few things. First was that the floor, walls and arched ceiling were made out of stone, like some kind of medieval castle. Suits of armor were lined up against the walls, ancient weapons were hanging off the walls next to some tapestries and there were a number of bookshelves stacked with old scrolls and old leather books. In front of one of the bookshelves was a familiar looking desk. There was also what appeared to be a makeshift bed in the corner and a couple of boxes of food rations next to a wooden table, implying that this place also served as a living quarter.

In a way, it reminded Dipper a lot of the Author's underground bunker, but at the same time it felt quite the opposite in that this secret hideout seemed to be devoid of anything electronic or even anything past the 19th century. This, along with the décor, gave the room much more of a retro, Gothic vibe to it, rather than a floppy disk era, mad scientist laboratory type of one.

Once everyone else had come in after Dipper, they all split off to admire the various different parts of the room. Mabel walked up to one of the armored suits which had enough shine left in it to reflect her distorted face back at her.

"Hey look! I just discovered my long lost disfigured, second twin!" she said, pointing at the blob like face in the armor. "Sadly, she was cursed without my cutest, but I bet if I can mess my face up enough, she'll look normal!"

Mabel pressed her hands to her face and started to make as many funny faces as possible in her attempt to see if she could fix her reflection.(It wasn't working). However, she leaned a bit too close to the armor and it then collapsed down on top of her with a resounding clatter. But a moment later, Mabel popped up out of the pile of metal, looking no worse for wear, except now she was a wearing the helmet for herself.

"I am Sir Mabelton" she declared proudly, standing on top of the armor. "Knight of the Cubed shaped table, defender of the kingdom of Rainbows and Plush toys. I fight for peace and happiness for all". In her hand Mabel raised up the sword that the armor had been holding. "Behold my sword, Pointy, which has been soaked with the blood of a thousand enemies. Their cries of mercy fell on deaf ears as I carved them down" she finished, with an almost murderous glint in her eyes. "Mwahahahaha!"

Coming over to join her, Soos picked up a large piece of cloth from the floor and tied it around his neck. "And I am Prince Soos, heir to the throne of Soostropia, from the far lands of Soos-ania. If you're wondering why all the names start with Soos, it's because I would have my name trademarked so I could put it on everything"

Mabel then turned over to Pacifica expectedly. "And you are?" she asked.

"Disturbed?" she answered dryly

"Come on Pacifica, join in" Soos urged. "Who would you like to be?"

"What do you mean, who'd I like to be?" Pacifica said uncertainly

"Just play along!" Mabel said, giving her an encouraging jab with her elbow. "We're using our imagination"

Pacifica now looked genuinely baffled. "In-mage-nation?"

Mabel unceremoniously dropped her smile, her arms falling to her side. "Seriously?" she said, with a deadpanned expression. "Okay, just pretend that you're somebody else. You know, it's like acting, except you're also insanely delusional. Just give it a try"

"Um okay" Pacifica said, rubbing her arm. She briefly cleared her throat before speaking. "I'm uh…Pacifica North…_east_. And I'm really rich because I….invented… gold. And I also have a cute little talking dog that can do backflips…and juggle. How's that?" she asked hopefully.

"Great! That was a great first try" Mabel said with a huge smile and a thumbs up. She then turned back to Soos, rubbing her hand over her eyes with a world weary expression. "She's killing me here"

While Mabel did some more practice runs with Pacifica, Dipper, having stopped paying attention to the others, was kneeling down in front of a large chest he had found wedged under the desk, his mind now completely focused on it. Examining the heavy lock on the lid, he pulled out a long metal tool with a small hook on the end. Sticking it in the lock, he twisted it around a few times, until it clicked open.

"Ha-ha, yes!" Dipper said in triumph. "Grunkle Stan was right. It is worth knowing how to pick a lock. Not that this amounts to stealing or anything. At least I'm pretty sure it doesn't" he mumbled, rubbing his neck a little anxiously. "Moving on"

Dipper opened up the chest and when he did, he suddenly remembered a certain catchy jingle form a video he had once played. Inside the chest, was an assortment of scrolls, and strange looking items, some of which were weapons, including a large crossbow, while others looked more like some ancient talismans. Resting on top of the chest was a rolled up piece of parchment with a sealed insignia. Opening it up, Dipper began to read.

"_Dear traveller. If you have come this far, I ask you to go one step further. I have left this chest of weapons and scrolls so that you may take up the mantle of vampire hunting, if you so choose. But be warned. If you take this path, the fate of the world may rest in your hands. I would say no pressure, but when you think about it's about as much pressure as you can get. Everything you need to stop the Voltaruss menace is in this chest"_

Rummaging through the chest, Dipper picked up a strange octagon shaped talisman with what looked like an oval shaped jewel inside. Attached to it was another piece of parchment.

"_Mystic item #56" _Dipper read aloud_. "This amulet will glow when near the presence of a vampire. Excellent for detection and tracking"_

"This is amazing! You guys come look at all this". The others soon gathered around Dipper and started to marvel at what he had found. "With this, we can track down Vincent and capture him. Everything we need is in this chest!"

"Too bad you won't be going anywhere with it"

Dipper's head shot up at the sound of that all too familiar voice. He wheeled in the direction of the door, which was still lying wide open. The door then swung backwards, slamming itself shut and the person standing in front of it, was none other than Gideon Gleeful.

"Gideon!?" Mabel exclaimed, shocked at the sight of him.

"You-you broke out of prison!?" Dipper said with equal shock. "How?"

"With a little help from a mutual friend of ours" Gideon said, taking a step forward. "And like I said, none of you are going anywhere"

"Oh man dudes, its Gideon!" Soos exclaimed in terror. "What are we going to do?"

Pacifica, who was the only one who didn't look worried or scared, just stared up the terrified Soos with confusion. "Uh, what are you so worried about. He's shorter than me and you're like ten times his size. Just push him out of the way or something"

"Oh no way" Soos said, shaking his head. "Look at him. He's got the sweet charm of thousand little kittens and the despotic allure of a hundred bearded dictators. Also, Mr Pines asked me this once, but turns out it's illegal to for someone my age to raise a hand against anyone under the age of 18"

"Then it's time for some child on child violence!" Mabel stepped forward, still wearing her helmet. "Sir Mabelton away!" Taking off in a run, Mabel charged right for Gideon, her sword raised above her head. Gideon showed no signs of fear or backing away. Instead, he reached behind his back and pulled out a dark coloured piece of cloth, like a large blanket. Once Mabel was close enough, he threw it right at her.

The cloth landed over Mabel's head and then covered her entire body, which made her stop right in her tracks due to the loss of sight. The outline of her head and arms were briefly displayed in the folds of the fabric which wrapped around her tightly. At first it didn't seem like much of an 'attack' on Gideon's part, but then something very strange happened. The piece of cloth started to drop lower and lower to the floor, as if Mabel was sinking underneath its weight. As it kept sinking down, her body seemed to be vanishing into the floor, as the lump inside the cloth t grew smaller, until it landed completely flat and spread out across the floor.

"Mabel!" Dipper exclaimed, horrified by what he just saw. He then glared over to Gideon, who was still standing at the door, looking smug. "What did you do to her?!"

Before Gideon could answer, Soos walked over to the dark cloth and lifted it off the floor, poking his head down underneath it, as trying to find Mabel. He then held the cloth t to examine it. With a child's curiosity, he extended one hand toward the underside of the fabric, but instead actually of touching it, his entire arm just disappeared inside the black material as if it had passed through some portal.

"Hey dudes look" Soos said cheerfully back to Dipper and Pacifica as he kept sticking his hand in and out of the cloth. "I got one hand in another dimension! Wait, what's the-?"

Soos' arm was forcefully pulled into the blanket, followed then by the rest of his body. The cloth lightly fell back to the floor, having claimed another victim. Dipper and Pacifica shared a shocked look with each other, both of terrified what might happen next.

The cloth started to ruffle once again and now a large lump slowly started to rise up from inside of it. The lump grew bigger, extending upwards, reaching just above Gideon's' height, who was now standing beside the cloth with a confident expression. When it reached full height, the edge of the cloth opened up and a head pop from the top, with the fabric now hanging around its neck like a cape. In Dipper's hand, the talisman he was holding started to glow brightly.

"Vincent!" Dipper said, narrowing his eyes and balling his fists up in anger. "What have you done with-"

Vincent raised up one finger to silence Dipper. He then flung his cape wide open and defying all laws of physics, Mabel and Soos came tumbling out of it, now bound in ropes. Dipper stared down at his captured and then back up to Vincent. He then glanced back down to the chest, his eye settling on the crossbow within it. He was a second away from reaching for it with his hand, when Vincent had already guessed his intention.

"Now, now. Let's not don't do something stupid, or worse heroic". Vincent reached into his cape and tossed some more rope over to Gideon. "Tie them up"

Still glowering, Dipper let out a reluctant sigh and stuck his hands up on the air, while gesturing for Pacifica to do the same.

A few minutes later, Dipper, Mabel, Pacifica and Soos tied up and huddled up in one big pile in one corner of the room. They watched as Vincent and Gideon were now going through the contents of the chest.

"Well?" Vincent said.

"It's not in here" Gideon replied, bent over inside the chest. "What do you need this knife for anyway?"

"That's not your concern. We'll look for it later. For the time being, let's take care of the rest of this"

Vincent removed his cape and draped it over the chest, pulling it along by the edge. Just like with Mabel and Soos, the chest was absorbed into the cape, disappearing, as if it was some kind of amazing magic trick, the kind you'd see from a stage magician only this one wasn't just a slight of hand.

"Well this turned out better than I expected" Vincent said, reattaching his cape. "Some of this stuff could have seriously hindered me if you hadn't led me here". He turned around to face Dipper who was glaring back at him with seething hatred.

"Wow, I bet this all must just be a _little_ bit frustrating for you" he said, holding his fingers an inch apart in a teasing manner. "I mean you came _all_ this way, did _all_ this work, put _all _your hopes into this little adventure, and in the end you came up with absolutely nothing". Each statement he made only seemed to intensify Dipper's anger. Vincent walked up closer to Dipper, bending down in front of him with an almost gleeful face. "Tell me, is this just as humiliating for you as when I stole your precious Journal? Or the fact that you actually unintentionally helped by finding this place?"

Vincent reached his hand out and grabbed the tip of Dipper's cap with his two fingers. "So, it looks like I beat you. Again!"

Vincent roughly pulled the hat down right over Dipper's eyes. Dipper shook his head free of the hat and then shot another death glare up at Vincent, whose face had now gone from taunting to melancholy

"Face it Dipper. I'll always be one step ahead of you. Maybe, if you knew anything about real dedication like I do, you'd have what it takes to win" he said, almost with an air of disappointment, as if he was lecturing him.

"Yeah Dipper" Gideon sneered, eagerly joining in. "How does it feel to-"

"Shut up" Vincent said, so blunt and coldly that it silenced Gideon almost instantly.

"What are you after Vincent?" Dipper demanded, struggling against his ropes.

"I want the Journal" he answered simply.

"You already took that from me!" Dipper replied impatiently

"I know. What I want now is the final Journal. Gideon here was able to provide me with I needed from the second one, thanks to his flash drive. Now all I need is Jounral#1"

"I'm telling you, I don't have it!" Dipper insisted

"I know _you_ don't have it. You're just the incentive here" Vincent said, taking his phone out from his cape and dialling a number. "In order to lure out the person who _does_ have the final Journal. Stanford Pines"

* * *

Stan was sitting in his office in the upstairs room of the Mystery Shack, happily whistling a jaunty tune as he counted his less-than-well earned money. Just then, the phone on his desk began to ring and he answered it promptly.

"Hello" he greeted. "Thank you for calling the Mystery Shack. If you want to know about our special offer, it's buy one get another one that's also not free. If you're calling about some insurance claims or lawsuits, then this is the wrong number and I no speaky the English senor"

"Hello old friend" said a small, dark voice on the other end. "I bet you never expected to hear my voice again"

Stan's face lit up with excitement. "Marilyn!? Is that you!? It's been so many years. Wow, you sound terrible since the last I saw you. Don't worry. Our relationship was mainly based on looks, so I'm sure we can make it work for us again"

"…What?" the voice said, evidently confused.

"Not Marilyn then?" Stan said. "Is it Carla MrCorkle? Also goes by the name Hot Pants McCorkle?"

"What?!" the voice said again, now becoming slightly indignant. "No! It's me, Vincent"

"Vincent, Vincent" Stan said slowly, rubbing his chin. "Hmm. I know a couple of Vinnys. You're not with the mob are you? Cause if you are, my legs are already broken due to a horrible accident involving a ladder"

"Don't you even remember me? It's Vincent! Also known as Vladimir Von Voltaruss V?"

Stan burst out laughing. "That's your name?! How many Vs is that supposed to be? Is that supposed to save you something on stationary or what?"

"Alright, enough of this nonsense" Vincent snapped. "I have returned to take back what's rightfully mine and settle the score. So it's time you face me and pay your debt"

Stan paused for a moment as he took this statement in. "Look, if this is about that money, I'm telling you the same thing I told the judge. Charities by definition are supposed to give money to those that don't have any, so technically I was perfectly within my legal bounds when I-"

"This has nothing to do with money!" Vincent snapped.

"Well, that's great, cause now I've officially lost all interest in this conversation" Stan said, leaning back in his chair. There was another pause on the phone before Vincent spoke again.

"I don't know what kind of game you're playing here, but this isn't Dungeons, Dungeons and Dungeons!"

"Ha, you're actually into that fantasy nerd fest?" Stan jeered. "You ought to hang out with my nephew. He's unhealthy obsessed with that junk!"

"I am holding your nephew _and _niece hostage at this very moment!" Vincent exclaimed, becoming increasingly infuriated.

"Yeah I've heard that one before" Stan muttered, clearly unconvinced.

"Now if you care about their safely, you'll do as I say" Vincent continued. "Return to me what you stole from my family thirty years ago or hand over your precious Journal and I'll find out where you hide it myself. It's time you faced me and owned up to the pain you have caused me or else your nephew and niece will pay the price for your hubris! So, what's it going to be _Ford_?"

Stan, who had been picking at his teeth in boredom just a moment ago, barely even listening to Vincent, suddenly went stark still, his eyes becoming as large as saucers, the blood leaving his face. Very slowly, he straightened himself in his seat, the phone still to his ear.

"Listen up kid" Stan said, his tone completely different than before, sounding the most serious he had been since the conversation started. "I don't know who you are and I've got no idea what you're talking about. Now I'm a busy man and if you want to make any more inquires, talk to my receptionist". Stan cleared his throat and when he spoke again, it was with a higher pitch and in a very poor imitation of a woman's voice. "Hello. I'm Stan's receptionist, Nats…Receptiony. Mr Pines is very busy at the moment, so I'll pencil you again for some time next month ok?"

Stan then lowered the phone down, going back to his normal voice. "And get me a cup of coffee while you're at it Nats!"

"Excuse me, I'm not getting paid to be your wife"

"Yeah, it's not like you don't do a good of job of that anyway. Come on Nats, baby, know you're drawn to my rugged good looks and my charming manipulative nature. Why won't you let me into your life?"

"You know what you did Stan!"

"I admit, maybe I should have paid for the dinner, but my feelings for you are real. Just give me another chance and I'm sure we can-"

Stan abruptly stopped talking and only then seemed to realise what he was doing. "Okay, you know what, this just went too far" he said into the phone, coming back to reality. "The bottom line is, I'm hanging up"

And with that Stan hung up the phone without another word, going back to his money, already beginning to pretend that nothing whatsoever had interrupted him.

* * *

On the other end, Vincent was looking into his phone with the most bewildered expression you could imagine. "Hello? Hello! He hung up on me! Alright, fine!" Scowling deeply, Vincent turned and walked over to Dipper and the others, pointing the camera of his phone right at them. "I'll send him a video to show I'm serious. Everybody, look scared and helpless"

"Sure thing dude" Soos obliged to Vincnet's request and started to kick and scream in terror much to the annoyance of his fellow captives.

"That's not going to work" Gideon said, putting his hand over Vincent's, lowering the phone. "I tried this hostage thing before with Stan, but he just ignored me"

"You leave Grunkle Stan alone!" Mabel yelled angrily at Vincent. "He doesn't have anything to do with this"

"Um he has everything to do with this?" Vincent replied. "We're all in this room because of him. Because of his stubbornness and infernal ambition to butt his nose in everyone else's private affairs!"

"What are you talking about?" Dipper said, sounding both confused and curious as to what was going on. "Why are you so convinced that Grunkle Stan has the final Journal?"

Vincent just stared at Dipper blankly for a moment and then started to laugh, shaking his head in amazement. He then turned back to Dipper, grinning in pure amusement. "You_ really_ have figured it out already? If you put all of it out on the internet for about an hour, you'd have a million conspiracy nuts who'd have pieced together easily"

"You mean like how everybody online says that Duck-detecive has a secret twin brother?" Soos said, but Vincent ignored him.

"Your 'Grunkle'," he said, with a pair of air quotations, "knows about the Journals, because he's the man who wrote them in the first place. Let me spell it out for you. Stanford Pines is the Author of the Journals!"

There are moments of stunned silence and then there are moments like this. The kind of moment a fan would experience when they find out that the most popular prediction of their favourite show had just come true. Everyone in the room looked dumbfounded beyond words at what Vincent just said. Even Gideon was wearing a slacked jawed expression of surprise. But Dipper on the other hand. He looked as though his entire world had just come crashing down over him. And in all honesty, it kinda did.

"_Stanford_ wrote them?!" Gideon exclaimed, with disbelief in every syllable. "Are you serious?!"

"You…you're lying" Dipper said, almost numbly. "Grunkle Stan isn't the Author. He-he can't be"

"He can and is" Vincent said. "Don't believe me? I know he's the Author because I met here myself over thirty years ago, back when I helped him write those books of his. And then he turned around and took everything I cared about away from me"

"Of course, I see it all now!" Gideon said, putting his hand to his forehead. "The Mystery Shack, his business, it's all a façade. A masquerade so that no one could see what he was up to. All this time, I thought he was just a fool trying to con everyone out of their money. But it was a con within a con! So ingenuous"

"Glad you're impressed" Vincent said, rolling his eyes. "But now it's time to move on to Plan B". Vincent gave a casual flick of his hand. The ropes binding Mabel and Soos were tugged forward by an invisible hook, dragging the two of them out into the middle of the room. Vincent then reached into his cape and pulled out the swords Mabel had been playing with earlier. He levitated the sword up into the air, letting it hover Mabel and Soos' heads. A second later the sword came swinging right down toward them at breakneck speed. They both screamed in terror at the oncoming blade, but fortunately, it missed them entirely. Instead, the sword had sliced cleanly through their ropes, freeing them. Vincent walked forward, stopping right in front of Mabel, getting down on one knee to look her directly in the eye. Behind him, the sword was still floating balefully up in the air over his head.

"You!" he said, pointing a finger right at her "You and chubsy here, are going to go back to your house and you're going to tell your uncle come here and bring me the final Journal,_ before_ sunset. Or I can promise you this"

With another quick flick of his wrist, the sword turned itself at a right angle and shot off, heading straight for Dipper. He didn't even have time to scream as the tip of the blade stopped just inches from his throat.

"You will _never _see your brother again"

Vincent stood back up and waited for a moment as he let the full weight of his threat sink into Mabel. This seemed to work as she was looking at her brother with more fear than she normally let show. With a distraught face, she looked back at Vincent. He pointed over to the door, which swung itself wide open.

"Now get going"

* * *

**Real sorry. That took longer than expected. I've kinda been through a pretty bad week, so I couldn't update soon enough. Anyway, as always, hope you liked the chapter and since we're getting close to 50 reviews, please feel free to drop one if you can. **


	21. Stan Meets Vincent

**So by now, everyone has heard the news that Gravity Falls is about to end, though on the other hand it's not necessarily news since everyone had already guessed that the end was near. Now, like everyone else, I'm deeply saddened by this, but I can accept it. As Alex Hirsch himself said, most shows end up either running so long they lose their original spark or they cancelled before they come to a proper conclusion. The fact that Gravity Falls gets a fit and proper ending is satisfying enough, though I would have loved more of it in some form.**

**Of course, as I'm sure more "rational" people, with all their precious "realism", would tell you, that it's just childish and silly of you to be sad over the ending of a "children's cartoon". I mean, what self-respecting 21 year old would even waste their time watching some cartoon?**

**But that really is the whole story of Gravity Falls. It's about childhood and that you should cherish the time while it lasts because sooner or later, it ends. **

**The way I see it, though we all to grow up, at the same time, that doesn't mean your childhood has to disappear forever. When you watch something as special and amazing as Gravity Falls, it takes you back to that feeling of childhood and that sense of wonder you used to have about life and the world. Cartoons(not all of them anyway) aren't just something made to pander for children. They can help remind you that you were once a child yourself and if you let them, they can make you feel like a kid again, even if it's only for 22 minutes. **

**It's a beautiful message, and I'm truly happy that I got to experience Gravity Falls for myself, and I don't believe I can ever forget about it. Phew. Well that's enough rambling on my part. Now on to some terrible fanfic writing**

* * *

Late in the evening, the Mystery Shack was just about to close up for the day, with Grunkle Stan escorting the last round of customers out the door.

"Thank you for shopping at the Mystery Shack" he said, waving to each customer as they left. "And remember, when you shop here, you'll always find the right price, but never a cheap one"

The last tourist stopped outside the door and turned back to Stan. "Excuse me, but I think I may have misplaced my wallet in there somewhe-"

"Everything beyond this point is legally property of the Mystery Shack!" Stan said quickly, slamming the door shut before the man could protest any further. "Phew, another day, another customer that didn't have enough time to call the cops"

Stan briskly walked up to the counter and checked the register for the day's intakes. It was then he realised that he hadn't seen Dipper or Mabel for several hours. Though a bit concerned, he brushed his worry off a moment later, as he was certain that they couldn't have gotten into _that _much trouble since the last time he saw them…..yeah. Three, two, one….

The door to the shop burst open wide with a bang, as both Mabel and Soos came rushing inside.

"Soos, there you are" Stan said sternly. "Where've you been? The toilet's clogged again and the smoke alarm's been beeping nonstop, so go out and get a new one"

"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel cried, running up to legs and pulling on his pant. "You got to help us, Dipper's in trouble, there's vampires and Gideon's back and we got to save him, comeoncomeoncomeon!"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down" Stan said, putting one hand in the air to stop her. "Take it from the beginning"

Mabel back away from Stan and took a short breath to steady herself. "Okay, first we went for some ice cream".

"Then I ate a gummi bear" Soos added.

"Then I put my best foot forward and nearly got impaled by some spikes"

"Then I found myself in the classic video game scenario"

"Then I found my disfigured twin"

"Then I became the heir of an illustrious kingdom and my hand crossed the thresholds of time and space into another plane of existence and then-"

"Alright, you know what?" Stan suddenly interrupted, already rubbing his eyes in exhaustion. "This sounds like one of those times that I'd just be better being irresponsible and not pay any attention."

Stan made a turn to leave, but before he could go any further, Mabel reached out and grabbed him by his hand. "Grunkle Stan, Dipper's in trouble!"

"What's he gotten himself into this time?" Stan said, sounding more irritated than worried.

"He's been captured by this evil vampire kid that's after the Journals!" Mabel cried.

"And he told us that you got the last one" Soos added. "Cause apparently, you're, SPOLIER ALERT, the guy who wrote them"

For once in his life, Stan seemed to be at a loss for words as he stared back and forth between Mabel and Soos. "….What?" he finally said, with a slight guffaw. "That's nuts! Like I have time to write any books. And if I did, they wouldn't be about all that 'weirdness' junk that goes on this town. I figure once I finally retire, I'll publish a book that demonstrates all my perfectly legitimate business tactics. That way even the most stupid and gullible people of the world will know how to make a living off people who are even more stupid and gullible"

"Are you saying you don't have the last Journal?!" Mabel said in a high pitched voice, looking up at her uncle, eyes wide in fear.

Stan started to squirm uncomfortably under his niece's pleading gaze. He avoided her eye and rubbed his neck awkwardly, teetering on the verge of saying something.

"Mabel….well I mean…the thing is….I don't really-"

"Grunkle Stan, please!" Mabel exclaimed, reaching out for his hand again. "I got to get back there and save Dipper! I need that book"

"Hey, hey. Now calm down sweetheart" Stan said softly, getting down on one knee and putting his hands on Mabel's shoulders. "Let's just think about this for a second okay? Now look, I….I don't know anything about any…. Journals, okay? And I'm sure whatever trouble Dipper's in, it can't be that bad"

This didn't pacify Mabel in the least. "Please, I need to get the final Journal and it bring back before sunset or…or". For a brief second, her eyes welled up with tears. "Or something terrible might happen to Dipper!" She then jumped up and wrapped her arms around Grunkle Stan's neck. "You got to help us!"

Stan's body stiffened up once Mabel had grabbed a hold of him. Without even releasing it, he was now holding her in his arms. After a long moment, that dreaded sense of guilt Stan hoped he had long given up in exchange for his unscrupulous plutomania, was now back in full effect. With a heavy sigh, he gently removed Mabel's arms from his neck and set her back down on the floor.

"Of course I'll help you" he said with steely resolve, standing up again. "And I'll do it the only way I know how. By passing something completely worthless off as being valuable and authentic". He threw his hand over to Soos. "Get me crayons and glue, stat!"

* * *

Back in the underground hideout, Vincent and Gideon had resumed their search for the mysterious knife that Vincent had mentioned earlier, pulling books off the shelves, ransacking some chests and looking through more of Abendroth's personal belongings.

Dipper and Pacifica, still tied up, had been tuck away in the far corner of the room. Normally Dipper would be trying to formulate a hundred different plans on how to escape, but as of right now, his mind seemed to be focused on a single, crushing thought. Beside him, Pacifica was trying to wiggling herself free from her ropes.

"Hey Dipper" she whispered in his direction. "I think I can slip out of these. What about you? Dipper? Dipper?"

Dipper didn't even seem to be listening to her. Instead he was too preoccupied staring off into space, looking deep in thought.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked.

"He's got to be lying" Dipper said abruptly.

"What?"

"Vincent. He has to be lying. There's absolutely no way Grunkle Stan is the Author. That's just not…possible"

"Is that really what's bothering you right now?" Pacifica said incredulously. "Not the fact we're being held hostage?"

"You don't understand" Dipper said impatiently. "I spent my entire summer trying to find the Author of that Journal, thinking he'd be the most amazing person in the whole world, but no matter what I did, I could never fine any real answers. And if it turns out that Grunkle Stan has really been the Author this whole time, then that means…that means-". Dipper suddenly had a brief flashback to when he and Mabel confronted Vincent in the cemetery a few nights ago, remembering what Vincent had said to him in particular.

"That means I couldn't even find the answer when it was sitting right in front of me the whole time" Dipper finished morosely. He sighed and lowered his head, growing even more depressed. "Vincent was right. I am always one step behind"

"Dipper, could you have picked a worse time to be having self-esteem issues?" Pacifica asked in exasperation. "You don't know if Vincent was telling the truth or not. Even if he did, doesn't that make you happy? That means you uncle is really your hero"

Dipper raised his head, taking a moment to consider this. "Well, I-I guess, but why would he lie to me and Mabel all summer? Why wouldn't he trust us with his secrets? Why wouldn't he trust _me_? What else could he be hiding from us? Does he have the last Journal? How does he-how…?"

Dipper, who had begun to talk in rapid pace, suddenly lost himself in his words and shook his head with frustration. "Argh! I don't even know what to think anymore! Is Grunkle Stan even the same person Mabel and I thought he was all this time?"

Pacifica didn't say anything, but was now regarding Dipper with a sympathetic look as he stared down at the floor. She shifted her position a little, avoiding Dipper's eye. "Um this is kinda weird" she finally said.

"This is Gravity Falls, everything's weird" Dipper said flatly, not looking up at her.

"No, what I want to is, I know how you feel and that's weird because I don't think I've ever said that to anyone before" she said with a half-hearted laugh. "Remember when I found out about my family's bad history? I used to think my family name was the greatest thing in the world, but it turned out that it was just an appearance and underneath it was something really terrible, and that my parents were just as bad. I guess, sometimes, people just aren't always gonna be what you expect them to be. They'll pretend to be something else. Maybe because their scared of being judged by everyone else or maybe it makes things easier for them, but it just means you're really lying to-"

Pacifica abruptly came to a halt and went very quiet, her eyes widening, as if she had just been hit by a sudden inspiration.

"What's wrong?" Dipper asked, becoming cornered.

"I just got an idea on how to get out of here!" she said excitedly.

"What is it?"

"Lean closer and I'll tell you" she said, dropping her voice down low. Dipper did as she said and moved closer, dropping his voice even lower.

"Okay, so what's your idea?"

"I said get away from me you creep!" Pacifica said, so loud that it caused Dipper to jump away in surprise. "Don't come near me. I don't want to catch your fleas! Or worse, you're social status" she said, edging away from Dipper in disgust. "Could I _please_ be transferred to side of the room that isn't seriously infested with nerds?!"

Her outburst was loud enough that it had drawn the attention of both Vincent and Gideon, who stopped in middle of their search and turned their heads back in the direction of their captives.

"Pacifica what are you doing?" Dipper hissed.

"It's bad enough you dragged me to this dirt hole, now you get me taken hostage? Again?" Pacifica said, sounding just as snarky as she did when Dipper first met her. "Do you know how much I can be ransomed for compared to you? I could probably buy you now and sell you back to these guys for a discount. Then you'll actually be worth something"

"Pacifica, this is really not helping my self-esteem issues at this point" Dipper said, half insulted, half mortified, as he tried to come to terms with her sudden relapse back to her previous snobbish demeanour. Vincent and Gideon had now come closer, watching the spectacle with a mixture of surprise and curiosity.

"Uh, please don't talk" Pacifica said with an eye roll. "I can actually feel my popularity drain from me by the second just from listening to your voice"

"Whoo-hoo, sounds like trouble in paradise" Vincent said, amused, nudging Gideon with his elbow.

"Wait a second, they're dating?" Gideon said, looking at both Dipper and Pacifica with surprise. "Goodness me, prison has put me so far behind on current events. Never in all my years, would I have thought that a _Northwest_ would stoop so low as to be dating a _Pines_"

Vincent dropped his grin, his face suddenly turning into a frown. He wheeled around to Gideon, looking as if didn't hear him correctly. "What did just you say?"

"That I didn't think a Northwest would date a Pines?" he answered, shrugging. Vincent looked from Gideon from to Pacifica, until he finally settled his eyes on her.

"Wait a minute? You-you're a Northwest?!"

"Uh, yeah" she said hesitantly. "I'm Pacifica Northwest"

Vincent's mouth dropped open slightly. He stare back Pacifica, and glanced over to Dipper, until finally he slapped his hand to his forehead

"Oh, I get it now!" he said, as if realising something that should have been obvious. "Very clever. This was all your scam"

"Scam?" Pacifica repeated.

"Of course. You were just pretending to be interested in him, so you could exploit something out later. Typical Northwest. I guess the apple always does land next to the tree doesn't it?"

"Well…. yeah, duh" Pacifica said, catching on quickly. "Why else would I hang out with this loser? Ever since that stupid ghost thing nearly ruined my parent's party, they had me follow him around to try and get that weird book of his, so we can protect ourselves from anymore weird stuff"

"You what?!" Dipper exclaimed, horrified.

"Now just tie me already and I'll write you a check, then you can go shopping for capes or whatever" Pacifica said.

"I don't need money" Vincent replied. "But my family does technically owe your family a favour, so out of courtesy, we can call this even"

With a snap of his fingers, the ropes around Pacifica, slide off and she smugly got to her feet, with Dipper looking at her, his mouth hanging open.

"Consider this debt repaid" Vincent said.

"Whatever" Pacifica said with disinterest, examining her nails.

"You Northwests never change." Vincent continued, shaking his head. "You're more underhanded and devious than my family, and we're vampires for crying out loud. Anyway, you're free to go". Vincent gestured to the door, which swung open. Pacifica turned to leave, but paused for a moment.

"By the way, just want to say one more" she said.

"What?" Vincent asked, sounding bored.

Without warning, Pacifica, grabbed the back of Vincent's cape while his back was still turned and threw right over his head. She then kicked Gideon in the shin, which him produce a loud yelp before shoving him right into the still blinded Vincent, knocking them both into a tangled heap on the floor

"Don't judge a person by their family!" Pacifica ran back over to Dipper who was looking up at her in amazement as she undid his ropes as fast as she could before helping him to his feet.

"That was the best you could come up with?" he said to her, a bit too harshly

"At least I came up with a plan!" she replied, incensed. "Just come on!" Dipper didn't need much persuasion as Pacifica pulled him by the hand toward the open door.

Dislodging himself from Gideon and throwing the cape off his head, Vincent watched his two former captives make a break for the exit. With nothing but a thought, he flung one of the nearby book cases after them, cutting them off before they could reach the door. He then leapt up in the air, flying over their heads and then landing in front of them.

"Okay, Little Miss Northwest" Vincent growled, glaring at Pacifica. "You want to be my bad side? So be it"

"Get out of the way Vincent!" Dipper yelled.

"Get… out of the way?" Vincent repeated, smiling incredulously. "Okay, just indulge me for a moment, but please explain _how_ you're gonna make that happen. What brilliant move have you got up your sleeve this time Dipper? Come on, show me what you got"

Dipper didn't answer Vincent. He just stood where he was, glancing around the room, desperately trying to think of a way out of this mess. As Vincent slowly began to advance on them, panic, fear and stress soon began to overwhelm him. There was nothing he could but to try and think. Try to think of way to think of an idea that will help him think his out of this. He tried thinking harder, hoping that would help him think of something but now he was beginning to think that thinking wasn't going to help him think of anything. Or so he thought.

His heart began to pound its way out of his chest, adrenaline started pouring into his veins, electrifying his body and killing off the piece of the brain that governed common sense and rationality, until finally it snapped. With a warrior's cry, Dipper shut his eyes and charged at Vincent, his arm raised in up.

"Left hook!"

Dipper swung his fist with all the strength he could muster, aiming right for Vincent's face. Without being very dramatic about it, Vincent effortless caught the fist in the air and was holding it in place with a piercing grip. The excitement of the moment of was now gone and Dipper felt his earlier courage drain right out of him, replacing itself with impending sense of doom. He tugged feebly on his arm which confirmed his suspicion that he wasn't going anywhere.

Vincent looked down at Dipper's fist still in his hand and then back up his face. He cocked his head to the side and gave Dipper a small pity smile, as if he was trying to say 'Really?'"

Raising his free hand up, Vincent thrust his open palm into Dipper's chest. If it had come from anybody else, the blow would have felt like nothing but a love tap, but with Vincent's inhuman strength, it was enough to knock the wind out of Dipper and send him tumbling back to floor.

After flexing his hand ostentatiously, Vincent marched up to Dipper, until Pacifica jumped in his path, standing between the two of them.

"Leave him alone!"

"Oh, girlfriend to the rescue" Vincent sneered. "Now I'm scared"

"I'm not his girlfriend" Pacifica said. "But he is my friend, so leave him alone".

Vincent clearly didn't take her threat seriously and just continued forward, however Pacifica firmly stood her ground, refusing to be intimidated.

"I said leave him alone!"

Pacifica thrust her arms out, hitting Vincent with her open palms. The second her hands made contact with him, a bolt of lightning erupted inside of Vincent's chest and sent him flying backward, crashing right into a stone wall, with a sizzling burn mark on his vest.

Dipper stared at what just happened, dumbfounded beyond words. He looked over at Pacifica, who was standing with her arms still outstretched, looking equally stunned by what she did. Very slowly she lowered her hands and looked down at them as if they might just might explode any second.

She then felt a hot sensation down on her wrist, just underneath her sleeve. She pulled it back, revealing a sliver, curved bracelet across her skin, that was emanating a faint glow but then it disappeared a moment later.

"What is that?" Dipper asked, moving up beside her.

"I-I don't know" Pacifica said, a bit fearful. "I found it my Mom's old jewellery. She said it's an old heirloom or something"

"Okay, I have about a million question about what just happened," Dipper said with a perfectly straight face. "But for the moment I think I'll just settle for, you're awesome and we should be leaving"

There were about to make another run for the exit, but Vincent had already gotten back up and moved in to block their path.

"You're not going anywhere!" he grunted, his hand over his burnt chest which was slowly beginning to regenerate.

"Oh yeah?" Pacifica stepped forward, now flaunting her newfound bracelet confidently. "Well, what you going to do now Mr Big Shot?"

No sooner had she said this, Pacifica was suddenly tripped over by some kind of unseen force. After she hit the floor, her hand was then pulled up into the air and the bracelet was wrest off her wrist. The bracelet hovered its way over to Vincent and a moment later, Gideon materialized out of thin air, holding the bracelet in one hand and what seemed to be some kind of wizard hat in the other.

"What is this?" he asked.

Vincent eyed the bracelet intently, recognition coming across his face. "This is an Ostracize Charm" he answered. "It's designed to repel a single type of being or creature by using a sample of its blood. This one has been set to work against vampires. This is why I couldn't get into the house that night" he said slowly, looking at Pacifica. "Because you were there!" Vincent let out another groan, clutching his chest in pain.

"Are you alright my friend?" Gideon asked him with the utmost concern in his voice. "You took a nasty tumble there. Here, let me help you".

"Get away from me!" Vincent snapped, knocking Gideon's hand off his shoulder. "I don't need help!"

Vincent pulled out a small seed from within his pocket and threw across the room at Dipper and Pacifica's feet. A second later, greenish vines sprouted out from the seed like a swarm of snakes and wrapped around the two of them, tying them up once again.

"This time, you're going anywhere" Vincent said, glowering at them. He turned back around to Gideon, pointing at the charm in his hand.

"Get rid of that thing!"

"Oh of course, of course" Gideon said quickly. With minimal effort he chucked the charm as far as he could across the room. "There, see. No more problem now"

Before Vincent could respond to this, he turned his head back to door as he noticed something. A small, green eyed spider had entered through the door and trotted its way across the room, stopping at Vincent's feet. He bent down and picked the spider up in the palm of his hand, and it was close enough that Dipper could see it had a large green eye in the middle of its abdomen. Vincent gazed deeply into the spider's eyes and moment later, he stowed it away into his cape

"There here" Vincent said to Gideon. "I'll do the talking, you just watch them"

Gideon didn't object to this and just stood guard over Dipper and Pacifica, while Vincent walked into the middle of the room, his eyes focused on the door. After another few moments, Grunkle Stan entered, followed suit by Mabel and Soos. In Stan's hands, was what looked to be a book exactly like the one Dipper had found, only with a number 1 written on the front. Without waiting for an invitation, Stan stepped forward, standing opposite of Vincent, and held up the Journal for him to see.

"You guy in charge?" he asked him. "Alright kid, I got your book right here. Now hand over my nephew". Stan glanced over at Pacifica. "Ya can keep the other one" he added dismissively. "And Gideon too I guess"

"Stanford Pines" Vincent said coldly, his eyes boring right into Stan. "It's been a long time" He paused as he surveyed Stan for a moment. "Huh, you look like been working out"

"Oh well." Stan said, clearly flattered. "I do hit the gym every once in a while and occasionally beat up some loiterer who falls asleep on my porch. Anything to keep my muscle guns loaded". He raised his biceps and kissed them.

Mabel walked out and stood beside Stan, pointing an angry finger at Vincent. "Let Dipper and Pacifica go!"

"First, the book!" Vincent said extending his hand. Sharing a nodding glance with Mabel, Stan dropped the book to ground and kicked it across the room to Vincent's feet. He picked up the book and regarded it with a deep sense of longing in his eyes.

"We held up our end" Stan said. "Now let them go"

Vincent took his eyes off the book and back up to Stan. "Before I do that, let me ask you something. Do remember what my favourite movie is?"

"I wanna say Dracula, but I to come off as racist" Stan replied.

"I'll give you a hint. You're about to say its second most famous line"

Before Stan had a chance to respond to this, he heard Soos voice come from behind. "Oh dudes, check this out. I just noticed all these weird seeds things laid on the floor, right in front of the only door in or out of here, in a somewhat suspicious manner. Wonder what that's about?" He bent down to pick one up with a curious expression. Just like before, green vines came out of the seeds in an instant, tightened themselves around Soos' midsection. The vines then did the same to Mabel and Stan, who fell down to his knees as the vines bound his wrist and ankles together.

"Ohohoho. I get it" Soos said cheerfully. "It was a trap"

"I guess genius and age don't mix well together" Vincent said, directly addressing only Stan who was now at eye level with. "You were never this sloppy back in the day"

From behind him, Dipper perked his ears up and was intently watching Vincent's exchange with Stan, hanging on every word he was saying.

"Well doesn't this bring back some memories?" he continued, with an unpleasant smile. "You, me, this book. Oh but wait". Vincent looked around the room in a mocking gesture. "It seems that someone is…._missing_". That last part carried a clear note of anger in it, as Vincent was now glaring darkly at Stan. "Now who do you think that could be, huh?"

Dipper now had his eyes on Grunkle Stan, waiting to see his response

"Off the top of my head, is it…Manly Dan?" he answered tentatively. "No? Okay uh, Tyler Cutebiker? Lazy Susan? That guy who wore the blue vest? No wait, I got it! Tad Strange!"

"You know who I'm talking about!" Vincent snapped, now turning vicious, advancing on Stan. "Don't pretend like I've forgotten what happened thirty years ago!"

"I'm not pretending" Stan said quickly, raising his hands defensively. "I just can't help but feel I'm missing out some context here"

"You promised that you'd help me, but instead you betrayed me!" Vincent yelled, drawing up closer to Stan's face, which made backed away somewhat nervously. "After everything we went through together, you stabbed me in the back and took away the most important thing in the world from me! Well now I have the power and nothing, not even you, can stop me from fulfilling my destiny!

"Look, whatever this is, I'm sure you and I can resolve it together with only a semi amount of violence and lawsuits" Stan said, trying to placate the situation. "But if your beef is with me, then let everybody else here go and we'll work this out man to….ah, undead abomination"

"Oh feeling a little self-sacrificey are we?" Vincent said sarcastically.

"That's not a word" Gideon pointed out.

"SHUT UP!"

Vincent clenched his fist in the air. Dipper felt a sudden and familiar pull come over the vines around him, as he was levitated off the ground. From behind Stan, Mabel also rose up and flew over beside her brother, the two of them now hovering over Vincent's head

"You want me to let them go?" he said. "Fine, I'll let one go and you can decide yourself Ford! Your niece or nephew, who will it be?"

From across the room, one of the swords ornaments on the wall was ripped from its holding, speeding through the air, until it stop, floating stationary in the space between Dipper and Mabel. Stan barely had half a mind as to what was going on, but this was enough to cause him alarm.

"Hey, wait, just hold a second!" he said to Vincent. "Leave the kids out of this. It's me you want!"

The sword was now rotating on a horizontally axis in a fixed position between Mabel and Dipper, moving at an incredibly fast speed, just like a game of spin the bottle, except this was probably going to end with a lot more stabbing

"What's it going to be Ford?" Vincent taunted. "Who are you going to save this time around?"

"Grunkle Stan, what is going on here?!" Dipper yelled unable to contain himself anymore. "How do you two know each other?"

"And why does he keep calling you Ford?" Mabel exclaimed in confusion.

"Kid, believe me when I tell you this!" Stan said desperately, throwing his hands out at Vincent. "I am _not_ who you think I am!"

"I know exactly _who_ you are". Vincent snarled furiously, going almost nose to nose with Stan. "I could never forget your face. The face of the man who I put my trust and faith into, but you were right along. In Gravity Falls, there's no one you can trust! I will _never_ forgive for what you've done and-"

Vincent didn't finish whatever he was about to say. Right in the middle of his rant, he had glanced down at Stan's out stretched hands and the instant he did, he became transfixed by them and fell silent. Moving closer, he slowly opened out the palm of Stan's hand and stared at his fingers.

"_Five_ fingers?" he whispered, backing away from Stan, pointing at him in shock. "You…you're not-"

Vincent cut himself off mid-sentence, as he suddenly let out a sharp cry of pain. He backed away even further, dropping Journa#1 to the floor, his hands reaching up to the back of his neck. A second later he toppled back down to the floor and doubled over in pain.

Dipper and Mabel both dropped back down to the floor, Vincent's telekinetic power no longer keeping them airborne. The sword dropped as well, stabbing itself into the floor. Vincent's hands scraped at his neck which seemed to be the source of his discomfort. Craning his head up to get a better look, Dipper could see that some kind of golden bug had impeded into Vincent's skin. Whatever it was, he couldn't seem to get it off and neither could he get back up on his feet again.

"What's….happening?!" Vincent grunted, his body now twitching violently.

He got his answer when Gideon, who had remained in the background this whole time, briskly strolled out front of him and picked up the Journal from where he had dropped it.

"That would be a Golden Scarab of Ramata-tabadata-tatablahblah" Gideon explained with a smug look. "Just a little something I collected during the day while you were asleep. It'll drain the life force right out of your body, till your nothing but a mummified husk. Oh I am sorry. Do I have your attention?"

His fangs bared in rage, Vincent made feeble lunge at Gideon but he couldn't even muster the strength to reach him.

"I'll being taking this" Gideon said, patting his hand on Journal#1. "And this!" Vincent was about reach into his cape, but Gideon quickly ripped it off his shoulders before he had the chance to retrieve anything of use.

"That'll teach you to make a fool of Gideon Charles Gleeful!"

Everyone else in the room was a bit surprised this turn of events. Dipper was the first recover himself, since he knew that villain team ups usually ended in betrayal. But with everyone's attention now on Gideon, he quickly realised that this might in fact be the perfect opportunity. Darting his eyes over to the sword sticking out of the floor a few feet away from him, Dipper slowly started to trudge his way to the blade.

The cape now in his own hands, Gideon immediately passed his hand right through its mysterious fabric into and from its void, he pulled out Jounral#3. He then opened up his prison vest and took out the ringed bound stack of papers that he had printed off from his flash drive, a large 2 drawn on the front page.

"Yes!" Gideon cheered in triumphant, holding all three books in his hands. "Yes, yes! I finally have them all! The key to ultimate power is mine! Hahahahahahahahaha!"

Gideon continued to laugh manically into the air and he went on for so long that Stan and the others were beginning to wonder when he would stop. As he kept laughing, Dipper had reached the sword and carefully started to rub against the sharp edge, cutting through the vines restraining him.

Unaware of what Dipper was doing and finally ceasing his laughter, Gideon eagerly opened up Jounral#1, like a kid about to open his Christmas present.

"Now, after all these years, I will learn the secrets of-"

As soon as he opened the book he was greeted by an impromptu blast of spray to his face. Spluttering furiously, he rubbed his face to get the spray out of his eyes. He then paused to sniff the air.

"Garlic?" he coughed, looking around the room. Stan, Mabel and Soos all started to whistle nonchalantly.

Taking another look inside the Journal, Gideon's surprised doubled as he started to flick through the pages and found there was nothing inside but a bunch of childish doodles, and some scribbled words that said 'mysterious code junk that some nerd will try and decode'.

Gideon threw another glance over at Stan, who just shrugged back at him.

"Least the cover of the book was convincing"

"It doesn't matter!" Gideon said, tossing the fake Journal aside. "I still have these two and sooner or later, I will find the final-"

With a loud snap, Dipper finally broke free of the vines. Getting to his feet and taking a running charge, he tackled Gideon to the ground, knocking the two other Journals out of his hands. They wrestled against each other for a moment, until Gideon managed to push Dipper off.

"You won't beat me this time!" he said, raising his fists. "I've been doing cardio in prison!"

Gideon waved his fists around dramatically, but then abruptly dropped them again, taking a dive for his copy of Jounral#2 instead. Reacting quickly, Dipper jumped down at the book and grabbed one end of it, while Gideon had the other. They each used their free hand to try and push the other one away, while pulling the book with the other hand.

"Get'em Dipper!" Stan cheered. "Fight for our amusement. And freedom. But amusement first!"

Vincent, still laying sprawled out on the other side of the room, now looking thin and malnourished, reached down into the pocket of his pants, and pulled out a small black pen. Steadying his hand as best he could, he aimed the tip of the pen up to the back of his neck and clicked the button, which produced a loud electronic ringing noise. Then in flash light, a thin red beam of energy shot out from the tip, hitting the scarab. Vincent held the laser in place, keeping it concentrated on the scarab until finally shattering it into pieces

Gasping for breath, Vincent appearance soon return to normal, though he still looked fatigue as he barely managed to stand up again. He turned his head up to see Dipper and Gideon were now standing up and playing tug of war with Gideon's copy of Journal#2

Raising the pen up again, he fired the laser directly at them, but wobbled and missed his mark, so instead of Gideon or Dipper, it hit the copy of Jounral#2, burning a hole through the middle, which soon set the whole buddle of papers ablaze. In a panic, Gideon and Dipper instinctively dropped the papers as they started to burn.

"No, no!" Gideon screamed, falling to his knees, trying to put the fire out, hoping to save what he could, but the papers were soon burnt beyond point of recovery. A foot then smashed down on the charred papers. Gideon turned his head up, and saw Vincent standing over him, looking vengeful beyond words, a deep growl emanating from his throat.

With the shoe back on the other foot, Gideon scurried backwards, cowering in terror, his hands over his head. Vincent was about to strike at him when he felt something pull very hard on the back of his head. From behind, Dipper had grabbed a hold of his ponytail and used it to pull Vincent away from Gideon.

Vincent now turned his full attention to Dipper. He swung his arm at him, but missed by a wide margin, his movements too lethargic. He seemed to realise this himself, because he now took aim at Dipper with his pen. Reacting as fast as he could, Dipper jumped at him, grabbing a hold his arm by the wrist and pointed the laser upward just as he fired. The laser went straight through the ceiling, burning through the solid rock like a hot knife in butter, which caused some cracks to form. Vincent tried to jerk his arms free from Dipper, but he was keeping his grip frim on him. Normally, Vincent could have easily broken free with his superior strength or used his telekinesis, but the scarab had drained away most of his power, putting him and Dipper on equal footing as the two them were now locked in a death struggle.

The laser, which was still on, was now going off it every direction as Dipper and Vincent spun around the room, cutting a clean line through the walls, celling and every other material that came in contact with the beam of energy. It also came dangerously close to hitting Stan and the others who had to duck down low each time the beam came their way.

Dipper and Vincent continued to struggle against each other, both trying to get control of the laser pen, while everyone else was trying to stay out of the crossfire. The only one missing was Gideon. In all the confusion, he seemed to have disappeared from sight. Out of the corner of his eye, Vincent could see Jounral#3, the only viable one left, was now floating in the air. Vincent pulled hard on Dipper, forcing them to make another turn, which caused the laser to sweep through the air above where the Journal was floating. A second later, the air rippled as Gideon reappeared, holding the Journal in his hands, the top half of his wizard hat having been cut off.

Now seeing Gideon with the Journal, Vincent tried to take a run at him before he made it to the door, but Dipper was still keeping a hold on him, refusing to let go. Vincent on the other hand, couldn't find the strength to shake him off, actually becoming surprised by Dipper's own vitality. Growing desperate, Vincent leaned in closer and snapped his jaw, sinking his teeth into Dipper's hand. Dipper then pulled away from him with a yelp of pain.

Once he released him, Vincent finally turned off the pen and ran to grab Gideon by the back of his collar before he could get away. He snatched at the Journal in his hands, but when Dipper tackled into him from behind, knocking all three of them down on the ground, which began were a three way dog pile between the three boys, each them fighting for possession of the Journal.

During the scuffle, Vincent lost his grip on his pen, which rolled out onto the floor away from the fight. Gideon momentarily hit against the floor, a small flash drive stick popped out of his vest and bounced its way across the room over to the Stan, who after cautionary glance, pocketed the drive before anyone would notice.

The pen on the other hand, had rolled out right in front of Mabel. Bending down, she picked the pen up in her mouth and with a spectacularly unrealistic level of dexterity, she managed to turn the laser back on, aiming it into the floor. Carefully getting to her feet, she hopped over to Pacifica and used the laser to cut through the vines around her, before hopping over to do the same for Stan and Soos. She then pointed the pen down and cut through her own vines, freeing herself. She then turned the laser off and spit it out of her mouth

"Laser pen!" she exclaimed, holding it in the air, but she soon lowered her arm again, losing enthusiasm. "Eh, it's not the same"

A huge piece of rubble suddenly fell down to the floor, an inch from where Mabel was standing, making her jump back in shock. Glancing up, they could see numerous cracks had formed in the celling and surrounding walls, the structure of the room having become destabilised due to the laser and was now beginning to fall underneath its own weight.

"Well, that adds to drama" Soos pointed out.

"Okay, I have had enough experience with debacles to know that we've bacled the heck of out of this place" Stan said. He turned to Soos. "You get the girls out of here. I'll get Dipper"

"On it Mr Pines!"

"Wait a minute" Mabel tried to protest, but Soos had already scoped up her and Pacifica in his arms, carrying them with him out the door.

Dipper meanwhile was still furiously grappling with Vincent as well as Gideon, the Journal no longer anywhere in sight. All three of them continued to push and shove against each other, but then all paused unison, when they noticed the chunks of rock beginning to rain down from above. Looking up, they could the ceiling was barely holding together and may collapse at any second

"This way! Quick!" Stan called out to them, waving this hand for them hurry. Gideon screeched in terror, immediately running toward Stan and the door, but tripped over a rock midway, falling to the floor.

"Ah, my widdle ankle!" he cried.

Dipper and Vincent had yet to move from where they were standing, as if waiting to see who might go first, the two of sharing a mutual look of hatred and mistrust with each.

That's when two different things caught their separate sets of eyes

Laying just a few feet away from him, Dipper spotted Journal#3. He knew what he was about to do was insane, but that didn't matter to him right now. No matter what, he couldn't leave without that Journal.

Beside him, Vincent had noticed a chunk of rock that collapsed out from the nearby wall, revealing a hollowed out section. A small, curved shaped dagger fell from the spot, clanging to the floor. Vincent let out an inaudible gasp, his eyes fixed on the dagger as soon as he saw it.

Moving almost in synchronisation, Dipper and Vincent took off in different directions, each going for their own prize.

Dipper ran through the crumbling room, dodging the falling debris through a combination luck and timing, until finally he clasped his hand around the same Journal that had changed his whole summer.

"Yes!" He jubilantly held up his cherished Journal, finally returned to him. But that moment didn't last very long, because once he opened his eyes again, Dipper could see the celling was about to give way. A strong arm came swinging in and picked Dipper by the waist. He turned his head up to see that Stan had run into the room after him and was now carrying him under his arm.

At the same time, Vincent ran toward the dagger, but his legs gave way beneath him, causing him to fall face first to the floor. Fortunately for him, he landed right beside the dagger and quickly grabbed the handle of the blade. However, he when he rolled over on his back, he stared up to the celling in the exact moment when it all came crashing down.

Stan and Dipper, who were too far from the doorway, hugged it each other, preparing for the impending impact. But after a few seconds of not being crushed into mushed up pancakes, they opened their eyes to see that the celling was still above them but much lower to the floor than before.

With both hands in the air, Vincent used every bit of strength he had left, to telekinetically halt the mountain of rock and dirt just before it landed on him, but he was straining himself just to keep the effort up and as a result he couldn't move from where was.

As with surviving life threatening debacles, Stan also had enough experience to know when to take advantage of somebody else's hard work to benefit himself

"Thanks for that" he said, giving Vincent a quick thumbs and then ran out the doorway along with Dipper, without a moments pause. But after pausing for a moment he back up again, picking Gideon up by the collar and then ran out the door without another moment's thought.

Vincent was now alone in the room, still keeping the roof from caving in on him. It slowly started to become heavier and heavier, until eventually he couldn't hold it any longer and just let his arms fall back to the floor in defeat.

"Oh, not again!"

* * *

Running up the stair and through the abandoned ice cream store, Stan vaulted right through the door, just as the entire building collapsed on itself behind them one second later. When the dust clear, Stan, Dipper and Gideon were lying down on the pavement, the ruined ice cream behind them.

Soos, Mabel and Pacifica, who had all made it safely back outside, rushed over to Dipper and Stan's side.

"Are you alright?" both Mabel and Pacifica asked Dipper.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine" Dipper coughed out, getting to his feet. He tried to steady himself as he stood up, but was almost knocked back down when Mabel wrapped her arms around him in a crushing embrace.

"I'm glad you're ok" she said.

As soon as Mabel let go of Dipper, she latched right onto Pacifica, taking her by surprise. "I'm glad you're ok too"

"Ah…. thanks" she said, lightly patting Mabel on the back.

After releasing Pacifica, Mabel turned around when she came face to face with Gideon who was holding out his arms, a huge smile on his face, apparently expecting his own hug. Mabel frowned at him and shook her head. Gideon smiled nervously backtracked a few feet, when he suddenly bumped into a pair of legs.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Gideon wheeled around to look up at Stan, who was looking back at him with a wryly smirk.

"Looks like someone has to go to jail. Soos, put him the in sack"

"You haven't seen the last of me Stan Pines!" Gideon warned. "I'll be back and-". Doing just as Stan said, Soos stuffed Gideon inside of a sack that seemed to appear out of nowhere and slung him over his shoulder, Gideon's cries of protest muffled inside the bag.

"Are you sure, you're alright?" Pacifica asked Dipper once again, concerned in her voice.

"I'm fine, really" he assured her. He then grinned slightly. "Although, I think my social status is just as low as ever".

Pacifica's face dropped to anguish as he said this. "Hey, I didn't mean those things I said before, I was only-"

"It's okay, it's okay" Dipper said, with a slight laugh, putting a hand on Pacifica's shoulder. "I know what you meant". Pacifica smiled back at Dipper with relief

"So, you think Vincent survived that?" Mabel asked her brother, looking over the ruins of the former building.

"If he did, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough" Dipper said, grimly

"Well, kids it's late and we just destroyed a building" Stan said, as if that was a normal occurrence for him. "Time to vamoose before the cops show". Stan ushered the kids to come along, but Dipper tugged at his arm to get his attention.

"Um, Grunkle Stan, about what happened in there" he began. "I mean all that stuff Vincent was saying. About you and the-"

"Ah that kid was just nuts" Stan said dismissively. "I honestly had no idea what he was talking about"

"So, you're not the Author the Journals?" Dipper said, with some slight tension in his chest.

"No, of course not" Stan said, with a gruff smile. "The only mystery I'm interested in is where I can put my ice cream sandwich where Soos eat"

"Yeah, I figured it must have been a mistake or something" Dipper said, chuckling a bit too obnoxiously. He cleared his throat and spoke again. "And thanks. For saving me back there, you know"

"Ah it's fine" Stan said, giving Dipper a small nuggy. "Mabel would have kicked my butt if I let anything happen to you"

"And I thought my parties were wild" Pacifica mused as the group started to walk down the street. "You guys literally tire up this town"

"Don't about you" Mabel said "But I scored big time on this one". She waved Vincent's black pen in the air teasingly. "I got a laser pen! That fires actual lasers of death!"

"Normally, I would be going crazy over that" Dipper admitted. "But right now, all I can think about is that I _finally_ got my Journal back!" Dipper hugged the book to his chest, happier now he had been for a while

"Oh yeah I almost forgot" Stan said, coming to an abrupt halt. He turned on his heel to face Dipper. "Give me that Journal".

"What?!" Dipper exclaimed.

"I said give me that Journal" Stan repeated, his expression unwavering. "I told you before didn't I? I'm taking it back and this time it's for good"

"But I only just got it back" Dipper protested.

"Then you won't miss it that much will ya? Now give it to me. That book has done nothing but get you and your sister in trouble. I'm only trying to look out for you two. This for your own good"

"But I still need it to-"

"Dipper, quit arguing with me and hand over that book" Stan cut over, growing more impatient. "I'm not gonna ask you again. Give it to me!"

Stan reached his hand down and tried to forcefully pull the Journal out of Dipper's hands. Dipper could feel the book already slipping through his fingers once again. It was about inch from being pulled away, when Dipper felt another fire erupt in his head.

"No!" He tugged the Journal out of Stan's hand, taking him by surprise.

"This is _my _book!" Dipper said fiercely, clutching the Journal to his chest protectively. "I found it and I can do whatever I want with it. And the only person I'm going to give it to, is the Author, when I find him. And if you're really not him, then….. then it's none of your business!"

Dipper stared up at Grunkle Stan, refusing to give in. Stan returned his gaze, looking more cankerous than usual, until he finally sighed in exasperation.

"Alright fine, keep the stupid thing" he grunted. "But next time you're being held hostage, you better just hope they ask for a cheap ransom".

Stan turned his back on Dipper and walked on. Dipper, who was still holding onto the Journal, was now staring intently into Stan's retreating back as if seeing something that wasn't there before. The others were taken back by the exchange between the two of them. Mabel in particular, looked stunned by her brother's outburst

"Dipper, are you…?" she said, moving to touch him, but he just brushed her off.

"I'm fine" he said curtly. "Let's just go home". Dipper walked on ahead, keeping his distance as he followed behind Grunkle Stan

Mabel remained where she was and watched with apprehension, as it looked as though something very bad had opened up between her two favourite people in the world.

* * *

Hours later, the remains of Bud and Larry's Ice Cream Store had not been disturbed since. However the rubble began to shake as if an earthquake had just struck. There came a small explosion from underneath the ground, as a section of the rubble was fire up into the air.

Vincent, covered in dirt and mud, climbed up out of a hole the ground, his. In his right hand was his now mud soaked cape and in his left hand, was the dagger he risked being buried alive for

"You think this is over Dipper?" Vincent whispered aloud, his brow furrowed in anger, as he wiped some dirt off his face with his sleeve. He looked down at the dagger, the shiny metal of the blade unable to produce his reflection. "I'm just getting warmed up"

He turned his head upwards, his resolve toward his mission still as iron clad as before, but now his mind was also turning toward thoughts of vengeance against a certain of pair of twins, one them in particular. This atmosphere was then unceremoniously cut short when a tub of expired ice cream landed on right Vincent's head from up above

* * *

**And. That. Is. Done**

**So, I couple things I'll close off on. First, as always, I hoped you all enjoyed the chapter. And I would really like to apologize for how long it took me to get here. The fact that I'm putting this up on Christmas Eve is definitely not the reason for the delay, it's pretty much just a happy coincidence.**

**I am a slow writer when I write anything. It's mostly when I start in setting up the structure of what's going to happen, but once I get into it, I speed up. Another reason is I that I wanted to take a short break of writing for a while, as it was taking up a lot of my energy during that time.**

**This chapter became a lot longer than I initially anticipated, but I did plan on packing a lot of stuff into it. In a way, I suppose you could call this something of a mid-season finale, due to its length and drama**

**Also, for those wondering about Vincent biting Dipper, don't worry. He's not going to become a vampire. Vincent can't turn anyone else into a vampire by biting them. The reason being is that he's still an adolescent. By vampire standards, he's about the same age as Dipper and Mabel, though he likes to think that he's at least a teenager.**

**The next chapter will indeed be shorter and it will be more a filler kind of episode. Also it will feature the appearance of very special guest character, which I'll leave up to your imagination…..It's Bill Cipher**

**Anyway, guess I'll end this by saying that I wish you a happy holiday to everyone and please leave a review if you can. Peace out**


	22. Circus of Fun and Secrets

Inside the Mystery Shack, Dipper and Wendy were sitting across from each other at the counter. The atmosphere around the room was tense, as the two of them stared each down, preparing to exchange in the world's oldest and most epic contest, since mankind had learned to use basic motor functions with their hands.

"One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war!" Dipper and Wendy interlocked their hands and thus began the ultimate contest of skill and cunning, their thumbs furiously pushing up at each other in a titanic struggle. Wendy seemed to have the edge, but Dipper was holding his ground firm. They battled for what seemed like days, the fatigue and delirium very gradually setting in. Dipper's concentration wavered for a second, his thumb slipping away from hers. Wendy took her chance, not hesitating for even a moment and pounced her thumb down on Dipper's

"Onetwothreepin!" she cheered. "Wow! Yes! Thumb wrestling champion"

"Ah, no fair!" Dipper grinned. "You counted too fast. Best two out of three"

"And so the battle begins once more" she said in a deep voice as she locked her hand with Dipper's once again. They were about to start anew when Mabel came running into the shack.

"Guess what I found!" she squealed, her hands hidden behind her back

"Something I think is gonna take up the rest of our day?" Dipper replied, non-pulsed.

Mabel answered him by pulling out a piece of paper and waving in the air. "The circus is coming to town!"

Curious, Dipper took the paper from her hand and sure enough, based on the imagery, it was indeed a flyer for what could only be a circus.

"Come see Ringmaster Archibald R. Argent Stupendously Exorbitant Phantasmagorical Traveling Circus Fun House of Circus Fun" Dipper read the large, colourful words plastered across the front. "The number one place where you'll be guaranteed to laugh until you die. Warning, all visitors will be asked to sign a wavering document with each ticket purchase"

"We have _got_ to check this out!" Mabel said, bounding up and down with excitement. "With that many dramatic and excessive words for a title, it's got to be good! Plus, laughing until I die is always how I envisioned my own death. Let's go the circus and pay them to murder us!"

At that exact moment, Stan burst into the room, as alert as a trained watch dog. "Did somebody just use the words circus, pay, and possible death by laughter all in the same sentence?"

He spotted the flyer in Dipper's hands and roughly snatched it away. As he read the piece of paper, a perpetual scowl formed across his face. "So he's back in town, huh? Oh, I've been dreaming of this day"

"You know about this circus?" Dipper asked him.

"Oh I know it alright" Stan replied bitterly. "It's run by that cheap stake Archibald. Every five years he comes to this town with that traveling carnival act of his and everybody lines up to pay to get a look at those freak shows of his, when they should be here, spending money on my freak shows! That makes me so mad and secretly insecure!"

Stan's scowl suddenly twisted into a devilish smirk. "Well, this year, I'm ready for him. I got a little something special that'll finally put an end to that circus act of a….slightly worse circus act" he finished feebly.

"Can we come too?" Mabel asked hopefully.

"Aw, of course you can sweetheart" Stan said to his niece with a warm smile. "I can always use accomplices to my crimes. And having children with me will arouse less suspicion. Soos!"

Soos popped his head in from the hallway. "Yes Mr Pines?"

"The time has come to use…_It_!" Stan said dramatically

Soos gasped, just as dramatic. "You don't mean….. _It_ do you?"

"Yes, _It_!"

"Wait, do you mean _the_ It or _that_ It, or just the it _It_ one?" Soos asked, a little less confused than you'd expect.

"No, the _It_ with the thing next to the other _It _with the vague description". Stan slammed his forehead with impatience. "Jeez, do I need to draw you a picture?!"

"Man, I remember this circus" Wendy said, after Stan had left the room to go help Soos. "One time, me and my friend Flynn McMartin went to see this thing when it was in town five years ago. It was pretty awesome and he loved it. He was always into like performance and stuff. He always said that he dreamed about working in a circus, coz he wanted to make people laugh. Said it was like his calling in life or something"

"What happened to him?" Dipper asked.

"That's the weird thing" Wendy replied. "The same day after the circus left town, Flynn just like vanished. Nobody knew where went and no one ever he him again, not even his family. Everybody said that he must have just took off with the circus. He even told me the last time I saw him that he was gonna try and ask the ringmaster guy to give him a job. Guess he must have said yes"

"We should run away with the circus!" Mabel exclaimed suddenly, grabbing a hold of Dipper. "We'll be a team with our own double act as trapeze-ers!" She jumped up on top of the counter, taking on the role of stage announcer. "The Phenomenal Pine Twins, featuring the Marvellous Mabel and Dynamic Dipper! They'll come from miles around to see our death defying, daredevil, possible-sidekick-origin-story stunts as we do a quadruple backflips in and out of deadly hoops of fire, a hundred feet off the ground and all over a huge pit of man eating crocodiles!"

"Uh, you think maybe we could scale back on those crocodiles?" Dipper asked, as if that was the only thing that troubled him about what his sister just said.

"I think I'll come too" Wendy said, hopping out over the counter. "Sounds like it'd fun. And maybe I can see how Flynn's been doing since I saw him"

"I guess we should all get a chance to enjoy the circus while it's here" Dipper said, not bothering to put any argument against it. "Seeing as how Grunkle Stan is probably gonna burn it down by the end of the day"

"Fires leave a trail kid" Stan called out from the other room. "Don't insult me"

* * *

An hour later, after Stan and Soos had retrieved the mysterious _It, _the five of them, drove into town, where it didn't take them long to find the circus, as they could see the massive tent already set up inside the park, with a crowd gathering around it.

Finding a parking space (in a no parking zone), Stan hitched the car up and 'delicately' removed the no parking sign, replacing with a completely 'authentic' sign that said free parking. After everyone had exited the car, Stan then walked around to the back and opened up the trunk, gazing down at the contents with an almost deranged gleam in his eyes.

"They said I was mad to build this!" he said, rubbing his hands manically. "They said it was a crime against nature, and that my insurance wouldn't never be able to cover it. Well, today, the world will see just how much of a stink Stan Pines can whip up!"

Stan bent down inside of the trunk and hoisted out the object of reverence. In his hands, he was holding what looked large metal cylinder like container, which resembled some kind of improvised fire extinguisher. In fact, it looked like it was made _from_ part of a fire extinguisher. There was tubes hooked up to the top of the lid, some of them badly taped together, with a nozzle and pressure gauge built onto the side.

"Behold the ultimate stink bomb!" Stan said, holding the container above his head for the others to see. "The culmination of over five years' worth of expired meat, fish guts, rotten eggs and some of Soos' unwashed underwear. When this baby goes off, everybody will have to take a bath inside the sewer just to smell better. This'll drive that jerk and his circus monkeys off for good. Now, to inconspicuously sneak this thing inside. Soos, get over here!"

The group entered through the tent, purchasing a ticket on the way in. Soos was the last one to enter. For some reason, the man working the ticket booth didn't seem to pay much mind to the noticeably large and oddly shaped bulge coming from underneath his shirt as he walked by.

Once everyone in the audience was seated, the lights went off in the tent, leaving it dark. Then a single spotlight appeared from up above, accompanied by a steady drumroll, as a huge ball rolled out into the middle of the spotlight. It then burst open in an explosion of confetti and in its place was a somewhat chubby little man with a moustache, dressed in a red jacket and holding a cane.

"Welcome, boys, girls and legal guardians who are obligated to be here!" he greeted cheerfully. "Welcome to greatest, funniest, grandest, spectacularest circus in the world! Where we have all the possible superlatives you can imagine. You name it and we'll suffix an est to!"

"I accept that challenge" Soos said with all the seriousness in the world.

"Pff, jumbling up words together to make them sound better" Stan scoffed. "Big deal. Any moron with a spelling disability can do that. You trying to mock our grammar skills over here huh Archie?! Huh?!"

The ringmaster Archibald turned his head to the direction of the voice in the audience.

"Why if it isn't Stan Pines" he said with a beaming smile. "Hoho, sorry, Stan but we already have a grumpy clown in our trope. But hey, we still have opening for being shot of a cannon. Now that I'm sure people will pay to see!"

The crowd responded with a round of laughter and applause, while Stan was quietly seething in his seat.

"Go ahead. Make your jokes at my expense" he whispered softly, narrowing his eyes at the ringmaster. "And then make money off my expense for your own expenses, but soon, your time will come. Your time will come"

"So what is that you have all come here for today?" Archibald continued. "Well, for some goodolel' fashioned, 100% home grown, wholesomely organic, free range, circus style fun of course! After all, isn't that what we all need in our lives? Some good fun and a good laugh to chase your sorrows away!" Archibald pulled out a small cup of water and took a sip to refresh himself. "So without further ado, let's everyone here have some fun!"

At the end of his speech, he placed the empty cup on the floor and then pulled it back up. From within the tiny space of the cup, an entire troop of clowns came tumbling out from underneath it and rolled out in front of the crowd, wasting no time in energizing everyone in the tent. There were clowns of every shape and size. Big ones, small ones, long ones, stout ones, buff one, skinny ones, ones with hilarious beards, moustaches, ones with giant teeth, noses and ears, and one that was wearing like a pirate hat or something. There was even one that looked disturbingly like Soos. The clowns spread out across the ring, performing a dozen different acts, some on their own, some in pairs or groups.

The acts were so diverse in nature that the crowd couldn't focus on more than just one at a time. There were clowns wearing long stilt legs, clowns forming a human pyramid, clowns that were doing tricks with a variety of animals, such as elephants and giraffes. Up above their heads, there were even more clowns swinging on trapeze, tight rope walking and bungee jumping.

Dipper and Mabel cheered loudly at the show in front of them. They stopped when a clown dressed in a black outfit with a huge skirt landed in front of them.

The clown pulled a set of balls and started to skilfully juggle them in the air with no apparent difficulty. He then started to juggle the balls with greater speed, until he threw them upward and let them drop into his mouth and down his throat. The clown then did a back flip, landing upside down on his hands. As he did this, the skirt he was wearing flapped down over his torso, which revealed the head and torso of another clown, this one wearing white, who had been acting as the legs for his partner. This clown pulled his head back and spit out the same balls his counterpart had swallowed. Only these balls were now on fire, and proceed to juggle them without haste.

Dipper and Mabel clapped enthusiastically, greatly impressed with the display. The doubled suited pair of clowns continued to dazzle them with more tricks, switching back forward between black and white. For almost five minutes they kept this act up, much to Dipper and Mabel's enjoyment. It was then that Dipper heard a strange jiggling noise in his ears that, although quiet, seemed to carry its way over the roar of the crowd, causing him to pause in his clapping.

"Mabel, did you hear tha-?"

Dipper cut his question short when the clown that had been entertaining them suddenly bolted away from him and Mabel, soon to be replaced by another one who started up a different act. Mabel was happy enough with this new clown, but Dipper's eyes followed the previous clown which was now dancing in front a different section of the crowd, repeating his performance almost step for step as he had done for them.

Glancing around the tent, Dipper started to get the sense that nearly every clown in this troop seemed to have their own acts memorised, as some of them began to repeatedly do the same things over and over again. The rest of the crowd didn't seem to notice this as they were too enthralled by the sheer scope of the performance.

After a while, the clowns had all stopped what they were as Archibald took to the centre of the stage once more.

"We'll be taking a short intermission, folks" he said. "In the meantime, feel free to enjoy the rest of the show outside. And remember, as long as you have fun, then there's nothing to be worried about!"

"Alright Soos, time to go to work" Stan said, as the audience began to get up out of their seats. "We'll sneak this thing back stage, then we'll set it to go off during the next act. I'd recommend you kids get out of here while your noses still work"

"I'm going to go pitch our trapeze act to the ringmaster guy" Mabel said to Dipper, jumping out of her seat. "Hopefully, he's got some crocodiles for us to work with"

Left alone with Wendy, Dipper walked alongside her back outside, strolling through the attraction set up around the tent. Wendy then spotted something out the corner of her eye.

"Hey, there's my buddy Flynn" she said, pointing at a nearby clown with spikey rainbow hair, who was giving out balloon animals to some kids.

"How do you know that's him?" Dipper asked her.

"I remember that trick. It's the same one he used to practice at home". Dipper looked again and saw that the clown known as Flynn was sticking deflated balloons into his mouth and when he pulled them out again, they were perfectly formed animal shapes.

"When he tried that at my house, he got his tongue tangled with a balloon knot. Hey, Flynn!" Wendy greeted happily as they approached him. "How's it going? It's me, Wendy"

Flynn turned around to acknowledge Wendy and Dipper, throwing his hands up the air.

"Well hiya, want a balloon!?" he asked, offering the two of them balloon animals, which they took somewhat hesitantly

"So anyway, how you been?" Wendy asked him. "See you finally got to be a clown, huh? That's awesome. You know your parents kinda freaked out a little with that running away and disappearing without a trace thing. Think maybe you could have left them a note or something?"

Flynn didn't seem as though he heard what Wendy said, as he just kept smiling with a goofy expression. "Want to see me juggle with my feet?"

True to his word, he turned his body over onto his hands and started to juggle a number balls using his oversized shoes.

"Uh, yeah that's pretty cool" Wendy replied, growing a little uncomfortable. "But I just want to talk, you know. I mean, how are you really?"

"How?" he rounded himself upright again. "How now is when the brown cow has his kung pow chow wow-wow! Woo hoo!" He produced a small bowl of rice with a steak resting on top as if to complete his punch line, though never Wendy nor Dipper found this to be that funny as Flynn just keep staring at them with the same bizarre face. Before they could comment or ask him anything else, Dipper then heard it once again, the same jiggling noise from before. Without another word, Flynn cartwheeled himself away from them, over to another nearby couple

"Well hiya, want a balloon?!"

"I guess he's not supposed to fraternize during work hours" Wendy reasoned as she watched her friend continued to entertain people with the same routine. Dipper on the other hand, couldn't help but see something else entirely happening.

"There's something that doesn't feel right about this place" he said, sounding troubled. He placed his thumb and finger to his chin, his expression becoming serious and pensive as he started to pace up and down. "I'm beginning to suspect that there may be more going on at this circus than meets the eye. I think that something sinister might be afoot. This calls for further investigation and as the most experienced mystery enthusiast available, I volunteer myself for the task. It could possibly get messy, but venturing into the unknown doesn't come without risks." Finishing his monologue, Dipper causally turned back to Wendy. "You want to come?"

Wendy just smiled and shrugged, aloof as ever. "Sure, sounds cool"

* * *

Meanwhile, inside of an ancient, medieval castle floating in the middle of the cosmos (No, no, seriously. An ancient, medieval castle floating in the middle of space), Vincent was locked in a deadly sword duel against Dipper. Not as amazing as a thumb war of course, but still ok I guess.

"You can't stop me, Dipper!" Vincent taunted, parrying his strike.

"You've overestimated your own power Vincent" Dipper shot back, dodging his backhand.

They were fighting inside what seemed to be a large dining room, made out of marble stone walls. A roaring fire illuminated the interior, which housed a long, wooden dining table, a throne like chair at the head of the room.

Kicking Dipper back from him, Vincent slashed at a nearby rope that was holding up a metal chandelier above causing it to fall. Dipper rolled away from the impact at the last moment. He quickly got back to his feet and charged at Vincent, who was ready to take his next blow. As they fought, they started to approach the end of one of the long wooden dining table lined up in the room. With turning around, Vincent jumped up to the table, followed suit by Dipper, the two of them exchanging more blows as they walked the whole way across, until they reached the opposite edge, where they both jumped down and continued duelling without missing a beat.

They then came to a large wooden door, which flung itself open for them, allowing them to pass by without interruption. But once they passed through the door, the scenery of the room suddenly went through a serious redecoration and they were now in some kind of huge, futuristic metal chamber, ten times the size of the room they were previously in. A long, narrow walkway stretched out from over a bottomless pit of steam. At the end of the walkway was a large circular platform, suspended over the pit and in the centre of the platform was an electronic pedestal. On top of the pedestal was some kind of some kind of sci-fi style stasis field, inside of which was a worn down Journal marked with the number one

Without paying much notice to this abrupt change of duelling venue, Dipper and Vincent continued to hack away at each other, before taking their fight up on the walkway. Careful to keep their balance, while still focuses on their respective opponent, the two combatants fought along the walkway, the clanging of their swords across inside the chamber

They eventually reached the platform, still appearing to be evenly matched, until Dipper managed to catch Vincent off guard and knocked his sword out of his hand, sending down into the pit below. Now that he was defenceless, Dipper held the sword right up to Vincent's face, getting ready to strike again. "I've been looking forward to this for a long time"

"Yes, I bet you have". In the blink of an eye, Vincent reached behind his back and pulled out a small pistol, blasting Dipper's sword right out of his hands with a laser beam. The sword spun up into the air, until reversing its own trajectory and flying right into Vincent's free hand. Grinning confidently, Vincent put the pistol away again and now he was the one holding the sword up to Dipper's neck, forcing him closer to the edge. Dipper soon stood his ground again and stared straight into Vincent's eyes, undeterred by the blade at his neck.

"Even if you strike me down, I'll become more powerful you can possibly imagine!"

Vincent paused and lowered his sword slightly as he considered this. "Then why don't you just _let_ me strike you then if that's the case?"

Dipper dropped his hands and rubbed his neck awkwardly. "Uh, well, it would be more powerful in a sorta metaphorical sense rather than a practical one type of deal"

"Oh". Satisfied, Vincent stabbed Dipper through his heart. Clutching his chest, Dipper let out a croaky gasp, before toppling down to the floor, motionless and dead. Revelling in his victory, Vincent walked over to the Journal and snatched it out from the suspension device.

"Finally. Now I can complete my-". Just as he opened up the cover, the book evaporated into thin air, literally vanishing into nothingness.

"What!?" Vincent exclaimed, waving his hands in the air, trying to grab a hold of the Journal again "I-I don't understand"

"Guess your Wendy was in another castle!" called a voice from behind.

Vincent wheeled around to see that Dipper getting back to his feet, the sword still sticking inside his chest. Aside from this glaring penetration of his body and the fact he wasn't the least bit deterred by it, there clearly was something different about Dipper compared to his usual self. He was now grinning like a mad fool, his eyes wide with excitement, but they were not the same the eyes he had a moment ago. They had changed, becoming yellow, the iris now black and oblong. Vincent could do nothing but gape at the sight of him.

"How are you still-?"

"Tis but a flesh wound!" Dipper declared, though in a voice that was clearly not his own, giving the sword a casual flick with his thumb and finger. He then chuckled and pulled at his own cheek. "Seriously, what's the point of this stuff? Evolution really pulled a fast one you three dimensional beings. You got nothing to protect you, but a flabby meat shield that holds your insides together. But hey, guess what? Now I _am_ more powerful than you can imagine. And I don't mean that metaphorically! Ahahahahahahahahahaha!"

Dipper threw his head back, laughing insanely. As he continued laughing, his two eyes were pulled into the centre of his face and merged together as one. Then, without warning, Dipper's entire body began to melt like a stick of wax, his skin, clothes and bones turning into goo, with only his single eyeball floating in the air. A brilliant shaft of light erupted out from around the eye, blinding Vincent. The light also seemed to be melting the room they were in, as it dissolved around them, changing it into the middle of starry space.

When the light finally dissipated, Vincent opened his eyes and then let his jaw drop down at what he was seeing. In Dipper's place, there was now a floating, golden triangle, with a single eyeball in the centre of it. Tiny, jet black arms and legs were sticking out of its sides, a top hat resting on the tip of the triangle, along with a small black bowtie underneath the eye.

Vincent stared up the strange being, backing away out of a mixture of surprise and caution. "Who….what _are_ you?!"

"The name's Bill Cipher kid!" the creature answered, tipping his top hat. He leaned down closer toward Vincent, his lower eyelid curled up into what seemed to be a smile. "And oh boy, have I got a deal for you!"

* * *

**Yup. It's Bill Cipher. Which by definition means that something bad is about to happen. So for anyone wondering about the ending, the answer is yes, Vincent is just dreaming and Bill just materialized into it. Also, in case you didn't notice the less than subtle Star Wars reference, the reason is that Vincent is secretly a pretty big fan, though he keeps that to himself.**


	23. Circus of Fun and Secrets, part 2

"A hush comes over the crowd as the Marvellous Mabel and Dynamic Dipper stand ready for their next performance. They both take off the top of the hundred foot pole, from swinging back and forth in the air, doing a quadruple back flips through hoops of fire and then some hoops of lighting, followed by a hoop of….chocolate! But then, disaster strikes on the final turn about, as Dipper has pulled away too soon, before Mabel can reached him, leaving her to plummet to her imminent and snapping death at the teeth of the snapping crocodiles! But behold! The Marvellous Mabel goes nowhere with her trusting grappling hook! She fires and latches on to the pole, pulling herself upward and then flies away on her mighty dolphin stead Aoshima to freedom! So what do you think?"

Ringmaster Archibald was sitting on a stool across from Mabel, looking mildly interested, having just finished watching her flawlessly brilliant and vividly authentic demonstration of her trapeze routine with Dipper, all done through the use of her sock puppets, which of course carried the performance as easily as the real thing.

"Alright, couple of question" he said, a moment's pause. "First, do you always carry sock puppets around with you?"

"Yeah doesn't look so crazy now huh?" Mabel replied, with a smug grin, the two puppets still in her hands.

"Second question, why does your brother have to drop you?"

"For the crowd appeal! They'll think I've fallen to my doom, when really it's just a ploy so I can make a dramatic comeback! It's like my Grunkle Stan always said. You want people's attention, just fake a heart attack"

Appearing satisfied with these answers, Archibald stood up from his seat and placed his hands over his hips. "You know what? I like your moxie little girl. And over hyper activity. How about I give you and your brother a chance to perform in front of the crowd today?"

"You'd do that?!" Mabel exclaimed in disbelief. "Really!?"

"Of course!" he replied, beaming happily. "We never turn any acts away here. At this circus, I give everyone a chance to have fun. And if you do well, I may just considering let you on permanently" he finished with a small wink

Mabel stared up at Archibald, going slack jawed. "Somebody slap me across the face, I'm dreaming!" Without warning, she suddenly smacked herself right in the face, producing a huge red mark on her cheek. She raised her hands up jubilantly. "Hooray! Reality is painful!"

Archibald stared at Mabel, slightly taken back, but then nodded his head empirically.

"That was good. Impromptu, satirical, self-mutilating. I'm liking you more and more!" He cleared his throat and put his hand around Mabel's shoulder, leading her away.

"Now we can't set you up with a trapeze just yet, but I think we can squeeze you in for the next act. You mentioned that your brother is your twin right? Well that sounds like the makings of a perfect double mirror act. You and brother will just have to stand in between an empty frame and act like you're both looking a real mirror"

"That'll be easy" Mabel said confidently. "I used to think that Dipper was really a magic walking mirror until I was five"

"Well excellent. Now let's get you dressed up for the part". Archibald tapped his cane on the floor. Zobo! Shemblenpox!"

A pair of clowns immediately entered the room, pushing a huge dressing rack, lined with various clown costumes.

"Now let's see what we have here. I've actually been looking for a pair twins to do this act. One more thing". He turned back around to face her. "Your brother would have absolutely no problem with wanting to make a fool of himself in front of a huge crowd of spectators?"

"Not since I've already vouched on his behalf and given consent in his place" Mabel answered, smiling as wide as possible.

Seeing Archibald accept this answer, Mable started to shift through some of the costumes with alongside him, when she spotted a poster of a clown with crazy orange hair on the nearby wall.

"Who's that guy?" she asked.

Archibald looked over to the poster she was pointed at. "Oh, uh, that's Squiggles McShaw" he replied, losing his earlier jolly disposition, now looking a little uncomfortable. "He was the best clown we had in this circus. Unfortunately though, he left us about ten years ago. I had to let him go as he was getting on in years and we were looking for some newer acts to take his place"

"Aw that's sad" Mabel said, frowning. "Did he get a job posing as an unhappy clown in art classes?"

"Uh, I'm not sure" Archibald said, his attention focused on the costumes. "But I have a feeling he found his calling in life somewhere"

* * *

"So what's the plan here?" Wendy asked Dipper, the two of them hiding around a tent corner, spying on a nearby clown who in the middle of a juggling act.

"I'm not sure" he answered. "I guess we just observe for now. I was thinking maybe we could try and follow one of these guys when they weren't performing, but they seem to be going on non-stop. I haven't seen one take a lunch break or even go the bathroom"

"Maybe they're like a method acting" Wendy suggested. "I read an article in a magazine once about how movie stars don't break ever character when they make a movie. It supposed to really help them get into their role. And sometimes they have psychological breakdowns and go into rehab for six months"

"Then maybe we just need to find a way to make them break out of character" Dipper said, deciding to ignore that last part. "But how? It's got to be something unexpected. Something to catch them off guard. Hey, I think I have an idea" Dipper beckoned Wendy closer as he went over the details of his plan.

Nodding in confirmation with her on what to do, Dipper walked out from the corner and over to the juggling clown who was singing a jaunting little tune as he tossed the balls threw his hands.

"Why hello there, Mr Clown" Dipper said, his voice loud and phonetic with each syllable. "Don't mind me, I'm just a normal semi-pre-adolescence little boy having so much fun at the circus. Wowsers! That's a nifty juggling act there. Can you teach me how to do that?"

The clown didn't respond to Dipper's presence, as he just kept juggling. Wendy then walked into the scene and roughly grabbed Dipper by his front collar, shaking her fist in his face.

"Hey kid, give me your lunch money!" she growled in a deep voice and aggressive voice.

"Argh, oh no, I'm being assaulted by this attractive red headed bully" Dipper cried. "Won't somebody help me?!" Both Dipper and Wendy turned over to clown expectantly, but he did absolutely nothing except to just continue his singing and juggling

"I said, won't somebody help me?" Dipper repeated slightly louder.

The clown paused for a moment before dropping his juggling balls to the ground and in their place pulled out a set of bowling pins.

"Uhhh…." Not sure what else to do, Wendy took some money out of Dipper's pockets, shoved him to the ground, with a slight apologetic shrug and took off round the corner.

"What's wrong with you?" Dipper said rounding on the clown. "You see a kid getting mugged but all you do is keep up your stupid routine?"

The clown answered this question by still doing his routine. Dipper stared back at him in utter disbelief at his lack of response. Still feeling frustrated, but now growing strangely curious, Dipper picked up one of the juggling balls and deciding to forget about caution for a moment, he threw it at the clown face. The ball missed his head by a small margin, but then bounced off a nearby poll, ricocheted off the back of a car, before finally hitting its mark on the clown right in his eye. The force of the hit was enough to make him flinch, dropping his bowling pins and popping off his red nose in the process. The clown shook his head and blinked his eyes several times, as if he was abruptly knocked out from a daydream.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Dipper cried immediately, horrified at what he had done. "I didn't mean to throw it that hard! Wow, I have really developed my muscles haven't I?" he said, taking a moment to feel his own arm.

The clown however, wasn't even listening to Dipper. Instead, he patted his face with his hands and looking down to confirm that his red nose was gone.

"I-I-I'm free?" he said quietly. He threw his arms in the air, cheering ecstatically. "I'm free! I'm free!" He then turned down to Dipper, with imminent concern. "Listen to me, you've got to get out of here! This place isn't what you think is! We're all being-"

Before he could finish his warning, three more clowns appeared from out of nowhere right behind him and wrapped their hands over his face and mouth, dragging him way from a shocked Dipper. Another pair of clowns stepped in front of him and started to do a devil sticks routine, smiling cheerfully as if nothing had ever happened. Dipper slowly backed away from the two clowns, feeling creeped out beyond words, going all the way around the corner to join Wendy.

"What was that all about?" she said, having witnessed the whole thing. Dipper didn't answer, but instead stared down at the clown's red rubber nose that he had picked up from the ground

"We got to find Mabel!" he said. "I think she's in trouble!"

* * *

Near the back of the circus tent, Stan and Soos had carefully stuck their inside a storage area, the stink bomb being carried in tow.

"Alright Soos, you set the bomb up while I keep watch" Stan whispered. Soos went to work in hiding the stink bomb in behind some of the boxes. "And remember, if I give you the signal that someone is coming, then its means I'm gonna run for it and you stay put and take the fall, got it?"

"Don't worry Mr Pines" Soos said happily. "I'm a natural born patsy, with a taste for baked pasty as well"

While Soos worked, Stan kept a keen eye around the corner in case anybody was coming, though after a few minutes he started to relax himself. Glancing around the storage area, he noticed a locked door nearby, with the words do not enter written on the front.

"Good thing I've learned to block out negative clause words." Stan said, approaching the door. "Now for all my finesse and skill at lock picking". Stan picked up a hammer from a shelf and smashed the lock to pieces, which allowed the door to swing wide open for him.

"Alright Archie, let's see what you got laying around in-"

The moment Stan stuck his head inside the dark room, something big and loud, came flailing out from the darkness right at him. Stan fell backwards to the floor with a fright, trying to wrestling the creature off himself. He pushed the thing away and back peddled a few feet away from it. Once he got a good look at the thing that attacked him, he saw that it was just an old and thin looking man, with a huge beard going down his chest. As Stan looked at the strange man, he thought he was unrecognisable, but the closer he looked at him, the more he couldn't help but see a distinctive familiarity about him.

"Archie?!" Stan said, widening his eyes in shock.

"Stan Pines?" the old man gasped. "Is that you?"

"Unless you got an arrest warrant, then yeah". Stan got back to his feet and then put his arm under the old man's to help him stand up.

"What the heck happened to you?" he asked, taking another look at his broken down state.

"Oh, Stan, thank goodness. You broke in here to save me!" he said, embracing Stan in a hug

"I will take full credit for that yes" Stan said quickly, still confused, but poker faced. He pried the old man off his chest, as he continued his lament

"I didn't think I'd ever be rescued, least of all by you. I'm been held prisoner in here for nearly ten years now!"

"Ten years?" Stan said, only growing more confused. "But I just saw you on stage only a few minutes ago?"

"Listen, there's no time to waste. We're all in terrible danger"

* * *

In the middle of the stage, Archibald holding up a small mirror in front of Mabel, who was now fully dressed her in own clown outfit, sporting white face paint and a star drawn over her right eye.

"Well, what do you think?"

"I am both beautiful and hilarious all in one" Mabel said, admiring herself in the mirror. "Beautarious! No, just kidding! That sounds stupid"

"Now we just need to get your brother in costume and we'll be all set. Oh and one last thing. You can't be a clown without a big red nose". Archibald stowed the mirror away and held up two red rubber noses, handing them to Mabel who stared at it excitedly. From the other side of the tent, Dipper and Wendy suddenly entered into the stage area. Mabel waved her hand in their direction.

"Hey Dipper, check this out! I'm clown Mabel!" She raised the clown nose up to her face, preparing to place in on her nose.

In just under a second, Dipper sprinted across the stage toward Mabel and swatted the red ball from her hand just before it reached her face.

"Mabel, don't!" he exclaimed.

"Hey, what was that for?" she replied indignantly

"Mabel, it's a trick!" Dipper picked up the red nose off the ground and then pulled the one he had gotten from earlier. "These noses, they're some kind of… mind control device. This man is forcing people to work for him as clowns!" Dipper brandished his hands at Archibald accusingly

"What?" he guffawed "Why, that's ridiculous. I was just helping Mabel here set for the next act"

"Don't you see?" Dipper said to Mabel. "This is all part of his plan. He lures unsuspecting children here and tricks them into joining his circus just like he did to Wendy's friend Flynn!"

"I didn't lure anyone anywhere" Archibald said, sounding a bit offended. "Mabel here came to me and I just offered her the chance to be a part of my circus. And Flynn did the exact same thing. He asked if he could have a job here and I let him. I let anyone with a love for the circus be a part of mine"

"Well how come Flynn didn't even recognise me?" Wendy demanded. "The last time you were here, he took off with you without even saying goodbye to his parents or friend"

"Why does no here ever stop performing?" Dipper continued. "Does anybody around here even have a life outside this place?

"Well maybe they all just feel that the circus _is_ their life!" Archibald replied, his voice suddenly becoming quite angry. "Now look, the show's starting on again in a few minutes, so what don't you two quit your clowning around and we can get to some professional clowning around and-"

"Hold it right there!"

Everyone turned their heads to the direction what could only be Grunkle Stan's voice. He was standing at the far corner of the room, striking a pretty heroic pose. Standing beside was Soos and a very thin, old man. In Stan's hand was a seltzer bottle, filled with water. He gave a brief jerk of his head toward Soos.

"Soos! Dramatic entrance smoke!"

"Oh right". Soos threw a smoke bomb down at their feet. Once the smoke cleared, it showed them still standing exactly as they were only more….dramatic. Stan raised up the seltzer and fired it at Archibald, spraying him in the face with water. Spluttering widely, he backed away from the other, instinctively rubbing his face with his hands. As the water dripped off his face, a dark brown substance washed along with it, briefly giving Archibald the expression of a melted face. Wiping the water off his face, his features had now changed to chalk white skin, big red lips and goofy orange hair that popped out in a huge puff on top of his head.

"It's a guy that I don't know!" Soos gasped in shock. Everyone else in the room seemed to share this opinion, except for Mabel, who did indeed know this man, having seen his face not too long ago.

"You're that guy from the poster!" she said. "Squiggles McShaw"

"That's right, he is. And I am the _real_ Ringmaster Archibald" said the old man, stepping forward. "Ten years ago Squiggles locked me up and held me prisoner so he could take over the circus"

"You mean so could I _save_ the circus!" Squiggles corrected him. "We were doing terrible business and were on the verge of being shut down for good. And what did you do? You fired me! After all my years of hard work and loyalty, you just dumbed me like some deflated whoopee cushion!"

The real Archibald noticed Stan throwing him a slightly accusatory glance at Squiggles' statement.

"Okay, yes it's true, I did fire him" he admitted with some guilt. "He was the best clown we ever had in the circus. He had around with us for nearly thirty years, but the crowd was getting bored with his acts. It was starting to get too expensive for me to keep him around, so I had to let him go to save the money"

"That's all you ever cared about!" Squiggles snapped, advancing on Archibald. "The money, but never the fun! The circus was my life. I've been a clown since I was fifteen and graduated from Clown College. I got three different doctorates in Buffoonery, Tomfoolery, and Particle Hilarity in Physics. I spent too many years making my life joke just so you could….make it a less funny, cruel irony kind of joke"

"I didn't have a choice" Archibald rebutted defensively, holding his own ground. "You were the one who was past his prime. It took you almost an hour to even blow up a single balloon animal and every time you did a hand stand, your back gave out. We were losing the audience and I had to make a business decision. The circus is still a business like any other"

"Well it's more than a business to me!" Squiggles cried. "It was my home. After you fired me, I thought my life was over. I was so depressed that I wandered around the local town the last time we were stopped here, hoping to find some kind of miracle to lift my spirits. That's when I came across a yard sale, where this crazy old man with a beard was selling a box of weird looking electronic spheres. From what I could discern from his hilly billy dialect, they were either mind control devices or cyborg falcon eggs from the future"

Squiggles paused a moment as everyone stared silently at him, as even he seem to realise the ridiculousness of what he just said.

"Luckily it was the first one" he resumed. "Once I figured out to work them, I disguised each of the receivers as a red nose prop and then snuck back into the circus before it left, replacing the regular noses with each one, while I held onto the transmitter. Once I had control over everyone, I locked Archie up and took his place as the Ringmaster. With my new found control over other the performers, I realised that I could put together the greatest circus act ever seen!

"That's why none of the clowns ever break from their acts" Dipper confirmed. "You were the one co-ordinating them the whole time. But how could be controlling that many different people at once?

"I don't control _everything_ they do" Squiggles said. "My cane sends out pre-recorded instructions that my clowns have to follow. I rehearsed and planned out all the acts with them beforehand and then program them to follow them out precisely, though I can nudge them a little if I think their lacking somewhere. Because of my direction, I was able to put on the best show we ever had before!"

Squiggles set his sights to Mabel. "You look me the eye and tell you still some socks on after watching my show"

"They were blown off, yes" she admitted shamefaced.

"But don't you see?" Dipper countered. "What you're doing is just wrong!"

"There's nothing wrong with the way I run things!" Squiggles said. "Everybody is having a goodtime and a good laugh, that's all that matters. That's what the circus is all about"

"But you're taking people against their will" Wendy said. "Not everybody wants to live in a circus for the rest of their life"

"And why not?" Squiggles demanded, his voice rising immaturely. "We go to new places, have adoring publics, and bring laughter to people. We're all happy here"

"No, _you're _happy" Dipper snapped at him. "You're keeping anyone here just because you can let go of your past. Because you can't move on with your own life"

"It's over Squiggles" Archibald said. "Time give back what you took from me"

Squiggles backed from everyone, now looking more desperate than ever. "No one is taking my circus away from me!"

He slammed the end of his cane on to the floor which set out a loud jiggling tune throughout the tent. For a moment nothing happened, but then the folds of the tent that surrounded Dipper and the others started to ruffle, as everyone clown in the circus started to pour in from all sides, their eyes now bright red, their teeth becoming fangs as they snarled viciously, foam dripping out from their mouths.

Dipper and Mabel huddled together over to Grunkle Stan and the others, as the sea of clowns was closing in all around them, leaving them no way out.

"This is has to be the second largest group of clowns that have ever wanted to kill me" Stan chuckled nervously.

"Get them!" Squiggles cried. "They're trying to ruin our circus!"

The clowns charged at the group, but their stampede came to an abrupt halt when Stan socked one the closest one in the jaw, sending him down hard. He raised his fist in a boxer stance as another clown lined up in front of him

"This ain't my first clown fighting rodeo!" he said. "Only this time it's not at the rodeo!"

Stan started to throw punches left and right as the wave of clowns assaulted him. Behind him, the rest of the group scattered in different directions as some of the clowns moved around him.

Soos and Archibald ran off to the left side of the tent, but were then cut off by at least five clowns, who raised up their open palms at them.

"Look out, they have buzzers on their hands!" Soos cried, backing away from them. "If they trick us into a friendly handshake, we're doomed!"

Wendy had gone to the right, but then came face to face with a clown wielding an oversized mallet, whom, she recognised as her friend Flynn. She dodged his wide swing and thrust herself at him, grapping the middle of the mallet

"Sorry Flynn". Wendy vaulted backwards, flipping Flynn right over her, and taking his mallet in the process. She got back to her feet and wasted no time in using the mallet as a weapon against the oncoming clowns.

In the confusion, Dipper and Mabel had been separated from each other. Mabel ran underneath the legs of a clown that tried to grab her, sprinting off to the middle of the stage where she came across another group of clowns who blocked her. Moving in unison, they each pulled out a deflated balloon and blew them full of air, before twisting each one into the shape of a sword.

A bit stunned, but still composed, Mabel took her own balloon from within her pocket, blowing and twisting it into a sword for herself. With a hardened battle cry, she ran at them and engaged the clowns in balloon swords duel. (Yes, a balloon swords duel, that's a thing, really)

With a number of clowns hot on his heels, Dipper quickened his pace and ran up to one of the nearby tent poles. Feeling around the pole, his hands grasped onto a ladder bolted on the other side. He quickly clambered up the ladder which brought him to a small platform halfway up the pole.

Out of breath, he glanced down as he saw the clowns were literally scaling the pole after him from below. From up here he could also see the others trying to fend off the clowns coming after them. He spotted Mabel near the middle of the stage, outnumbered and almost cornered. He also saw a trampoline that was near her and then found something else hanging from a hook above his head.

Seeing that Mabel about to get caught, he took a big gulp, preparing to muster up the courage to do what he was about to do.

"Mabel, jump!" he called down to her

Hearing Dipper's voice and spotting the trampoline behind her, Mabel didn't take another second to decide, putting her trust in brother instantly. She ran up to the trampoline and jumped on it as hard as she could, bouncing her way up into the air. Just when she was about to fall again, Dipper swooped in and grabbed her hands in his own, his legs hooked inside of a trapeze that carried him through the air.

The two of them landed on the platform on the opposite pole, feeling a bit lightheaded but otherwise alright. Looking down below, they could see Grunkle Stan breaking away from the clowns surrounding him and tackling Squiggles to the floor, trying to pull his cane off of him. Dipper turned to face Mabel.

"You thinking what I really hope you're not thinking?" he asked with a grin

Mabel smiled back in agreement.

On the ground, Stan took another swing at Squiggles who ducked under his fist and then squirted a nozzle of water at him using a flower on his shirt. Now wet, but still determined, Stan made another grab for the cane. Squiggles pushed him away with his free hand and raised his cane up in the air, out of Stan's reach

And right into Mabel's, who along with Dipper, swung above his head with the help of the trapeze, grabbing the cane out of his hands.

"No!" Squiggles screamed.

"Wendy catch!" Mabel threw the cane over to Wendy who caught it effortlessly and in one swift motion, smashed the head of the cane against the ground, breaking it apart to reveal an assortment of wiring hidden inside the tip.

All around the tent, every one of the clowns suddenly stopped what they were doing, their own minds now returning to them as they lost their evil demeanour.

"Aha! We did it!" Dipper cheered. "By the way, do you know how we get down from-?" They both caught their answer when the bar holding Dipper's leg snapped off the wire, dropping them to the ground. Luckily, Soos managed to catch them in his arms just before they hit the ground. The three of them joined Grunkle Stan, Wendy and Archibald, who were all watching as the clowns started to properly collect themselves

"What's going on?"

"We're free! Squiggles hold over us is gone!"

"Hey, there he is. Let's advance menacingly on him!" The angry mob of clowns were about to descend onto Squiggles, when Mabel suddenly threw herself in front of them.

"Hold on!" she said. "He doesn't deserve this!"

"Are you kidding?" one of the clowns said. "He turned us all into his slaves. He totally deserves this!"

"Well….okay, but you were_ entertaining_ slaves" Mabel said, seeing no problem with that statement. "You guys are like the best clowns I've ever seen. You all put on such an amazing show that made a lot of people happy today. Sure, you were robbed from own free will, but you still got the chance to make people laugh. And isn't what being a clown is all about?"

"She's right! Kinda". From out of the crowd came Flynn, who took up position beside Mabel, addressing his fellow clowns. "Look, I know what Squiggles did to us was wrong, but the fact is, I'd be lying if I said that being a clown wasn't something I that always wanted. Every since I was a kid, I've loved the circus. It just make me feel good to be able to entertain other people. When Squiggles was in town five years ago, I asked him to let me be a clown. How many of you didn't come here looking for a job to begin with?"

The clowns fell silent as none of them seemed to be able to answer this question.

"Um, I actually just came in to use the bathroom that one time" one of the clowns piped up in the background.

"When I join up" Flynn continued. "All Squiggles asked of me in return was to just love the circus as much as he did. And I still do. Don't all of you feel the same?"

"Well, yes it's true, we do love this place" said another clown. "But we didn't have the chance to share in it. He kept us all prisoner, while he took all the credit and attention all for himself! We love our circus too, so why can't we have a say in it!"

Everyone turned their attention back to Squiggles who still sitting on the ground, now looking at everyone with a horror struck expression.

"Oh my god" he whispered softly. "You're right. How could I be so stupid? I loved this circus so much that I forgot the most important thing about it. Laughter means nothing if it can't be shared with other! I saved my circus by ruining the best part about it. Why fate, why!? Why must you deal me these hilarious ironic punch lines!?"

Squiggles dropped to his knees, bawling uncontrollably, much to discomfort of everyone else. With a look of sympathy, Mabel pulled out a very long handkerchief from under her sleeve and gave it to him. He blew his nose loudly, steadying himself once again.

"I just wanted to keep the circus alive. I…I couldn't face the fact that I was going to lose the thing I loved most in the world. And I couldn't face the truth….that I'm a has-been. Archie was right, I'm too old for this. My jokes went out of style years ago and it'll be at least another five years before they make a brief comeback. I'm so sorry. I deserve any punishment you want for me". Squiggles hung his head down in shame, ready to bear anything they might throw at him

It was then that Archibald stepped out from the crowd, getting down to one knee in front of him.

"No Squiggles. You were right" he said putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'd been running this circus for so long, that I forgot something as well. I forgot why I stated in the first place. I did start obsessing more about the money than anything else. I forgot that the circus isn't about the profit. It was about the magic of entertainment and laughter. To put on the grandest, spectacularest show imaginable"

"And you still did that!" Mabel said. "Just think of all those great acts that you put on before!"

"And you're the one who thought of them" Flynn added. "They brought in the best crowds we've ever had. Without your rehearsals we would have never been as good we are today". The surrounding clowns all murmured in agreement

"Then maybe that's the answer" Dipper said. "You don't have to retire from the circus. You can be a clown coach and trainer. You can help teach people how to be clowns like you"

"He's right. You'd be a great coach" Archibald concurred.

"You-you'd really let me come back?" Squiggles sniffled. "Even after all the terrible things I did?"

"Sure they will!" Mabel quickly cut in. "You guys can let go of those angry feelings you've built over the past ten years, right?"

Archibald and the clowns glanced around each other, taking a while to maul this over.

"Well, maybe after _one_ little thing"

* * *

Once the show finally resumed, the real Ringmaster Archibald once again took his proper place in the centre stage. "Welcome back ladies and gentleman" he said. "Get ready to have your mind blown, as we have a special guest with us for a one time performance. Introducing the legendary, Squiggles McShaw!"

The spotlight moved onto a large cannon pointed directly at a stacked up wall of bricks. Inside the cannon was Squiggles, who was waving his hands to the crowd, looking completely ecstatic at having one last chance to perform

"Who tonight, as his special send-off performance, will be shot of a cannon and right into this _seemingly_ solid brick wall of_ seemingly_ hard non-fake bricks!"

"So after years of being mined controlled, they just ask for the chance to shoot Squiggles out of a cannon as payback?" Dipper said, sounding slightly surprised.

"I know right? " Stan said, munching some popcorn. "Honestly I was expecting to do something pretty horrible to get eve-"

There came a loud boom as the cannon went off and the whole Pines family grimaced painfully as it turned out that the _seemingly_ solid brick wall was in fact pretty solid. Luckily Squiggles was alright…for the most part and once they got their bit of closure out of the way, the troupe put on yet another staggering performance, finally free to truly laugh alongside with the crowd for the first time in ten years.

Once the show was over, the Pines family got back into the car and after Stan has burned the parking tickets that had been left on the windscreen they set off for home once again

"Did you see me and Mabel back there?!" Dipper exclaimed, unable to contain himself as they drove off. "We're on an actual trapeze! We were just like…._whoosh!_ Right through the air!"

"Let's give it up for the Phenomenal Pines Twins!" Wendy cheered, giving Dipper a high five and Mabel a fist pump. "When the two of you get together, you're unstoppable"

"Nah, we're just a couple of kids with no regard for safety. But it's enough for me to know that Dipper's always gonna catch me when I fall" Mabel said, giving her brother a warm smile.

"Ah, you know it feels nice to do something good for others" Stan said, feeling a great sense of euphoria in his chest. "And I here I was this morning, out to ruin the circus rather than save it". Stan chuckled lightly. "It's amazing how you decide to end the day compared to how you start it huh?"

"By the way Mr Pines, I forgot to ask" Soos said. "How'd you set the timer back off the stink bomb after it's been set?"

The car skidded to an abrupt halt so fast that Stan and the others didn't even have time to register the whip lash. Behind them the sky turned crimson red as came a massive explosion that sent a mile high, green mushroom cloud into the sky right over where the circus tent had been situated, screams of terror and chaos already echoing into the night.

Stan slammed his foot on the accelerator, nearly burning the rubber off the car's tires as they sped away from the crime scene.

"If anybody asks we were out robbing the homeless!"


	24. Vincent meets Bill Cipher

"Bill…Cipher?" Vincent repeated, backing away from the floating triangle, having absolutely no idea who he was or what was going on. Nor did he even have time to question the fact that he was literally standing the depths of space itself.

"Top of the morning to you!" Bill greeted, doing a small circle around Vincent. "And your Vladimir Von Voltaruss V, but friends call you Vincent or Vinny for short"

"How do you know my name?" Vincent asked sharply and with great suspicious.

"No reason" Bill shrugged. "I'm just secretly watching you and everything else in this universe in all places, at all times. Ha! Bet that'll make you feel uncomfortable huh?"

Vincent was still regarding this strange creature with a great sense of caution. Not only had he never seen anything like this being before, but this _thing _already seemed familiar with who he was, which did indeed make him feel uncomfortable, or rather, vulnerable. And despite his alien nature, Vincent couldn't help but get the sense he had seen this Bill Cipher somewhere before, but it was such a passing recollection that he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"So anywho, sorry about interrupting your dream there" Bill continued. "Looked like you were having quite the fun time"

"Dream?"

"Oh yeah. See I'm a dream demon and you're actually asleep at this very moment. I was just in the neighbourhood and thought I'd come take a poke inside you head, see what you got going on in the attic. And judging from the backdrop around here, you got yourself a serious sci-fi fetish"

"What?" Vincent said in alarm, suddenly looking particularly flushed. "N-n-no I don't! That is just, um…."

"Hey, don't worry kid" Bill said placidly. "There's no shame in having all your inner most thoughts and secrets exposed. But hey, how about a present?" Bill snapped his fingers and created a small box, which drifted down into Vincent's hands. Before he even touched it, the lid of the box flung wide open releasing an ear piercing scream that blasted him in the face, making his hair stand on end

"**PICK UP YOUR DIRTY SOCKS!"**

With considerable effort, Vincent slammed the box shut, gasping as if had just run a marathon. He looked back to Bill, who didn't look the least bit perturbed or abashed by what just happened

"It's a box of Enteral Horrific Nagging!" he answered simply.

"What you would even need something like that for?!" Vincent said incredulously, throwing the box into the air, where it dissolved into a wisp of steam.

"If you don't like, I also have a box of Perpetual Jazz music" Bill offered. "Or how about a Bag of Exploding Appendixes? They're all still fresh from the operating room!"

Vincent just stared up at Bill, unable to tell if he was being serious or just joking, but he soon got the impression that this was the type of guy where that sort of thing probably didn't matter either way. Deciding that the best course of action was get away from him as quickly as possible, Vincent cleared his throat and recomposed himself.

"Okay, Mister…uh, Cipher" he said carefully. "You seem like a barrel of laughs, but I got work to do. So, ta-ta". Giving a fleeting wave of his hand. Vincent turned around and began to walk away from Bill

"Haha, you know, that's what I like about you V-man!" Bill called after him. "You're focused. You don't let anything stand in your way"

In a burst of light Bill disappeared and then reappeared right in front of Vincent blocking his way. "I'm exactly the same!"

Vincent shifted his feet back a few inches but held his ground against Bill. "Look, I don't know what you want but I don't need-"

"Want? Need?" Bill chuckled as if he found those terms to be both insignificant and amusing. "Everybody needs a want, and everybody wants a need. But something tells me you're a guy who's wanting to need a want that's worth needing to need wanting for that need that your wanting to want that want you're in need of needing"

"Can you please start making some sense?" Vincent said, growing increasingly impatient.

"You're asking _me_ to make _sense_?" Bill laughed even louder. "You make as well be asking the Japanese not to make their cartoons super cute or, to include offensive objectification of women in order to garner a majority demographic audience of pubescent boys and old guys who can't get a date"

"….Wha?" Vincent said, having literally just lost the plot. Thankfully, Bill finally decided to move the conversation forward.

"But seriously though. Truth be told, the reason I'm here is because I was just interested in meeting with you. It's been a long time since I've meet a Voltaruss in the rotting flesh"

"You know about family?" Vincent said, now even more cornered about Bill's level of knowledge regarding him.

"Sure" Bill replied. "Matter of fact, I once met your great-great grandpappy, Vladimir Von Voltaruss I. Nice guy, we had pot lock together. I brought the human souls and he brought the yams! Ha! Just kidding! Those things me indigestion. Bet you'll start to rack your brain a little over which one I meant"

Vincent, however didn't seem to concern himself with that, as there was only thing going through his mind right now. "You knew my ancestor?"

"Sure. I know lots of people". In an unprecedented move, Bill entire body changed colour from bright, glowing yellow to buzzing static, like a TV changing the station, displaying a number of images in rapid succession, including a six fingered hand writing notes into a book, a tall, dark cloaked man in the middle of a crypt, a young Soos on his birthday, Dipper sitting on a log beside Wendy, Mabel holding a scrap book with a tearful expression on her face, a drawing of llama, Stan standing in front of some kind of election podium, before finally going back to normal.

Vincent remained silent as he continued to regard Bill with a measured sense of caution, still not quite sure whether or not he could consider him a friend, enemy or just plain neutral. For the time being, he choose to play the situation by ear and see how this may turn out.

"You mentioned something about a deal?" he said, only sounding mildly curious.

"Indeed I did" Bill replied, rubbing his hands together. "See I was thinking that you might like a helping hand with your nefarious plans. Especially after Pine Tree handed you that humiliating defeat the other day"

"Pine Tree?" Vincent said, confused.

"You know, Dipper Pines" Bill clarified. "I have nicknames for everybody in this dimension. Helps give me a sense of having omnipotent control of them and their fates. Which I do!"

"Dipper? He didn't defeat me!" Vincent yelled angrily,

"Buried you under a hundred tons of rock and then stole back the Journal that you stole from him. Gotta admit, even I was impressed by that!"

"He just got lucky" Vincent said through his gritted teeth. "That gimpy little nerd is _nothing _compared to me! I don't need any help to beat him or his sister and that….guy that they're living with"

"You mean Stan Pines?" Bill said.

"He's not Stan Pines" Vincent spat coldly. "I knew the_ real_ Stan Pines and that's not him. That guy is some kind of imposter"

"Well, who knows?" Bill said, with a vague shrug. "There can't be that many Stan Pines in the world. You know that thing people say about how everyone has identical doppelganger somewhere in the world?" Bill split himself into an identical duplicate, as if to emphasize his own point. "Total hoax, fabricated by soap opera writers to pitch their ridiculous plot lines".

"Just like that myth about humans only being able to use 10percent of their brain" the second Bill added, the number ten etched on his body. "It's actually 12 percent. But back to the matter at hand". The two Bill merged themselves back together. "If you wouldn't mind humouring me a little, tell me, what exactly do you need to do to get what you want? And what do you want to do to get what you need?"

Vincent rolled his eyes and shook his head in exasperation, reassigning himself to the fact that he was already trapped in some kind of game. A game where Bill seemed to be holding all the cards.

"Okay, I _want_ what the Stan Pines stole from my family thirty years ago. And I _need_ to get it back before the end of this summer in order to complete my mission. I know he hid it somewhere in this town and that each one of his Journals contains the clues to find. I have what I need from numbers three and two. All I need now is that last page from Journal #1, but I have no idea where it is"

"Oh, you mean this page?" Bill gave another snap of his fingers and from out of a ball of blue fire, he materialised Journal#1, which flipped open onto a single page that was promptly torn out from the book and hovered right in front of Vincent inside a glowing blue sphere. He gaped at the paper in amazement.

"How did you get that?!"

"Let's just say me and Stan Pines once had an _intimate_ relationship together!" Bill answered cryptically. "I used to rent out his brain from time to time and jotted this little number down from memory. And it's all yours kid! Just touch this page here and an exact duplicate will be implanted in your mind to do with as you please"

Vincent gazed into the page, almost as if he couldn't believe it was really right in front of him. For a brief second he looked as though he was about to take it, but held his hand back, scepticism getting the better of him.

"I'm guessing that this isn't a charity, is it Mister Cipher?" he said coolly, crossing his arms.

"Well, well, well. I see vampires aren't as gullible as humans" Bill said, impressed. "You right on the money there Junior. I'll give you the last page you need in exchange for something else"

"Which is what?"

"Oh nothing that you'll miss". Bill said, waving his hand dismissively. "Just your life"

"My…life?" Vincent said, not sure he had heard correctly.

"Yeah, I need you to die for me. Just once is enough" Bill added, as if he had just asked Vincent to loan him five bucks.

"This sounds like a very one sided deal" Vincent said. "What good is that page to me if I'm dead?"

"Well it wouldn't be the first time you kicked the bucket now would it?" Bill raised up his index finger and flicked it backwards. Vincent suddenly left something starting to tug around his neck and underneath his vest. Pulling open his collar, the circular amulet he carried with him at all times levitated up into the air toward Bill's finger.

"Nifty amulet you got there. Has the power to revive whoever wears it five times. But looks like you only have two more to spare". Bill indicated toward the two remaining green gems embedded into the amulet. "All you have to do is trade one of those to me and the last page is yours"

"I need these" Vincent said sharply, grabbing his amulet and placing back under his collar. "For…. emergencies"

"Oh, you mean like that _other_ time Pine Tree beat you and then incinerated you alive. Haha! Yeah, bet that was embarrassing" Bill said, oblivious, or more unlikely, just indifferent to the angry glare Vincent was throwing at him. "I'm offering you a great deal here kid. You only need one more page and you'll still have one extra life on hand in case something else goes wrong. Why don't you save yourself some trouble and just let me help you out a little? What've you got to lose?"

Vincent rubbed his chin, his eyes focused the floating page, which almost seemed to be begging him to just give and take. Though he was very much tempted to do so, he wasn't about to make such a risky move unless he had some kind of assurance that it would pay off. And while he certainly hadn't known this Bill Cipher for very long time, nothing about him seemed to scream out trustworthy

"What's in it for you?" Vincent asked. "What exactly would do with one of my extra lives?"

"Well thing is, I'm throwing a little 'get together' with some of my friends" Bill said, with pair of air quotes added to get together. "But I need to make a few arrangements. Don't want to bog you down in my boring party planning details, but a little life energy here and there can go a long way."

Vincent seemed satisfied enough with this answer. "Okay, so why come to me?"

"Other than you fact you some spare lives dangling on your neck, I was feeling a little nostalgic" Bill answered, folding his hands behind back as he gazed out among the stars. "You remind me a lot of your great-great-grandpa. Once upon time he made a deal with me too, which worked out pretty well in the grand scheme of the universe. Guess I was looking to see how much of my old friend is in you"

"And…. how much do you see?" Vincent asked, sounding a bit more overeager than he wanted to.

"Let's just say you have a lot to live you to if you want to impress me the same way he did" Bill replied. "But you got a lot of potential Junior and I might have another job for you sometime in the future. I just thought maybe I could do you a favour first. So about it? I'll even throw in that Bag of Exploding Appendixes for free!"

Bill raised the sphere contained the page up the air in his hands, like a salesman pushing on his latest sale. But Vincent still wasn't convinced.

"How do I even know that this is the real thing?" he asked. "You could have just made that up as an illusion. You even said that this is my dream, so how can I be sure that any of this is real? Or you are for that matter"

"Oh, ho. Street smart" Bill said, growing even more impressed by Vincent's haggling skills. "You just won't make this easy for me will you? I love it! So you want proof huh? Well ok then. While we're both here, might as well have some _fun_. How about we take a little trip down memory lane to quell your concerns?"

Bill snapped his fingers for a third time. Behind him, the outline of a doorway appeared in the inky blackness of space, followed by a wooden frame that shaped and formed itself from the dark material. On the front of the newly created door was a series of childish doodle, including one of a castle and a family standing beside it. The door flung itself wide open and thrust forward, expanding outward as it engulfed both Vincent and Bill into an endless void of nothingness

* * *

**So, quick question. How is my Bill Cipher so far? Fun? In-character? Evil and twisted? Just a quick comment is enough.**

**Anyway, this was supposed to be part of a bigger chapter but I decided to split it up because I thought it would be better pacing. The next one shouldn't be very long and when it does comes we're finally gonna have a deep look into Vincent's past**

**Also, I wanted to try and start a new schedule where I upload a new chapter at least once a week since I feel taking long breaks in between puts me off writing and I know it's not fair to those hoping for an update**


	25. Nothing Hurts More than Memoray

When Vincent opened his eyes again, he the first thing saw was that he was no longer standing in the void of space, but instead he was now falling through the air toward solid ground. Without panicking, he flipped himself upright in the air to get better control of his descent and then landed on the branch of a tall tree that appeared as he got closer to the ground.

Once he was standing on his own two feet again, Vincent took a quick survey of the area to figure where he was. The first thing he realised was that he was now out in the middle of the woods, surrounded by trees. It was also night time, with a full moon illuminating the whole forest. Whenever this was, it certainly was not the same forest found in Gravity Falls as Vincent could see several snow caped mountains off in the distance, not to mention that the bark of the trees was clearly different. He took a few moments for him to fully digest this change of scenery which oddly enough seemed a little bit familiar to him. He also noticed that Bill was nowhere to be found. As he gazed over his surroundings, still unsure what to make of it all, he heard a rustling noise coming from below, as it sounded like someone was making their way up the tree toward him.

Vincent hadn't been sure what to expect when the mysterious someone finally joined him on the tree branch, at first thinking he might get an explanation out of them, but once he got a face to face look at this person, it no longer mattered because his brain suddenly shut itself off, as if a fuse a had been blown.

The person standing before him was none other than…. himself. Or rather, it was a much younger, smaller version of himself looking the age of a six or seven years old, with short messy hair, his trademark pony tail now gone.

The young Vincent was smiling with complete innocence, his eyes alight with excitement as he looked up to the top of the tree. Without any cautionary pause, he walked right up to the present Vincent and just passed right through his body as if he was a mere ghost, continuing his intrepid climb up the tree.

Vincent slowly turned and gaped in disbelief at his younger self who scurried up the bark of the tree, dumbfounded beyond words or even coherent thought. Everything, however, became clear once a certain someone made their presence known again.

"Welcome to your memories Junior!"

Vincent glanced around wildly at the sound of Bill's voice. When he couldn't spot him, he arched his head upward and saw that was Bill lounging idly in the air right above him, a bag of popcorn and a soda cup hovering at his side.

"What…what is this?" Vincent stuttered.

"You can call it my reference" Bill answered, taking a sip of his drink with his non-existent mouth. "You wanted proof that I can do more than just illusions, well here it is! Plus I thought you might enjoy reliving some of your more carefree days. Nothing like a long introspective look into your past to help you understand your impending future. Just think of me as your Ghost of Pagan-Winter-Solstice-Holiday-Whatever-Past. Oh and don't worry, these are your own memories. You and I are nothing but observers here"

The little Vincent was struggling to pull himself up the bark, his tiny legs kicking in the air. He swung one leg up and with an adorable display of effort, he plopped himself onto the top branch. Wobbling on his feet slightly, he cast his eyes out over the horizon of trees. He then look up at the full moon which seemed to take up the entire sky. Vincent stared at it, mesmerised, stretching his arm out, thinking for a second that he might able to touch it. But he moved out too far and his foot slipped off the branch, causing him to plummet head first to the ground with a scream. He's screaming was soon cut when a pair of hands caught him around the waist and held him in mid-air. He had been caught by a man that was floating in the air, his dark cape fluttering ominously in the wind. From up on the tree branch, once he had gotten a clear view of the man who had caught his younger self, Vincent let out a small, audible gasp, as if he could no longer believe his own eyes.

"Who could it possibly be?!" Bill exclaimed, dramatically. "The suspense is killing me! Oh who I am kidding? I know that's your Dad"

Vincent's father, who looked distinguishably like his son, held him up to eye level and him a weary smile. "Now, Vinny, we talked about this. You can't be out here climbing trees. If something happened to you, your Mom would put a stake in my heart. Literally"

"Sorry Dad" Vincent said, guiltily. "I just wanted to get a better look up there at the sky"

"Now, come on" his father said, trying to perk him up. "I promise once you're old enough, I'll give you flying lessons, ok? But till then, you'll just have to make do with a piggy back ride from your old man"

Vincent's father hoisted his son over his head and placed him down on his shoulders, holding tightly on to his legs. Once his son was secure, he took off with blinding speed, doing loops through the air, as Vincent waved his hands over his head

"Wheee!" he cheered happily, with as much merriment and excitement as you would except from a child on a rollercoaster. Vincent watched, mouth still agape, as his father flew off with his younger self into the distance, their laugher echoing behind them. He barely was even able register it, when the world around him started to ripple, dissolving itself and then reforming into the interior of a castle. His father and younger self were now standing in front of a darkly dressed woman with long black silk like hair, tied up into a pony tail over her shoulder.

She was standing over the young Vincent, looking down at him with a stern and unflinching eye, that would no one but a mother could possibly give

"You were out climbing trees again!?" she exclaimed furiously at her son. "How many times have we told you not to do that? Just because you're immortal doesn't mean you can go out trying to get yourself killed little mister!"

Vincent's father stepped forward, calmly trying to diffuse his wife's anger. "Now darling, he was only-". The mother rounded on him next, waving a dangerous finger into his face, forcing to back away.

"Don't you start! One more word from you and the only thing you'll be eating for a month is garlic!" The father immediately back down from his wife, feeling both scared and emasculated. She then turned her attention back to her son, who shifted his feet timidly

"I'm sorry, Mom" he said, lowering his head in shame. "I didn't mean to upset you". His mother continued to glare at him, but her angry scowl soon melted away into a smile at sight of his puppy dog face.

"Oh it's alright darling" she said, getting down to his level, stroking his head. "I know that you're sorry. But not as sorry you're going to be!" Quick like a fox, she lunged at Vincent and pulled him into her chest, proceeding to playfully nibbling at his neck with her fangs, which caused him to sequel with delight.

"Aah! Look out! She vants to suck your blood!" Vincent's father picked his son up into the air and together they started to run around the room, laughing as they were being chased by Vincent's mother who was doing an excellent evil vampire queen impression

In the background, the present Vincent could do nothing but watch this touchingly beautiful display of love and affection between his younger self and parents with a melancholy look on his face, unable to say anything. He blinked a couple of times, his eyes slowly becoming watery

"Aww, if that doesn't just melt your heart, then nothing will" Bill said, brusquely floating right up beside Vincent. "Except probably a vial of sulfuric acid. That would be interesting to see….again." Bill then noticed Vincent's despondent expression. "Oh I'm sorry. You're overcome by those biological chemical disorders called _emotions_. Ha! But you know I'm curious about something. Why were you up in that tree?"

This question snapped Vincent out of his pervious trance, but before he could try and answer, Bill raised his hand up to stop.

"Wait, that's alright you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'll just have a look for myself!"

Another door popped up out of the floor in front of them, this one with a drawing of the moon on the front. As before, the door opened, expanded and enveloped both Vincent and Bill.

This time they were outside, night time again, in the backyard of some residential home. Over in the bushes, they spotted the young Vincent, who craning his neck up by the window. Inside the house was a large family, all gathered around the TV screen with looks anticipation, many of them holding tiny American flags. The program that was playing on screen was in fact the televised broadcast of the first moon landing

"_That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"_

The room erupted into applause, as the occupants cheered at the sight of humanity's single greatest technological, scientific, engineering and exploration achievement.

"Hurray, we made it to the moon!" one man said. There then came a short pause. "So what exactly does this change about our lives?"

Whatever the answer to that was, it didn't matter to Vincent who was looking through the glass, slacked jawed and speechless at what he had just witnessed. He turned his head upward, now looking at the moon sitting hundreds of thousands of miles away from himself and everything else on this planet, but yet, somehow, someone was standing on it at this very moment. And it was also at that very moment, Vincent knew that he wanted more than anywhere else in the world.

"Isn't that adorable?" Bill said. "A little vampire who dreamed of going to the moon. Sounds like something out from a really bad fan fiction writer. Now those guys need a life"

Again, the scene changed itself. The young Vincent was now sitting crossed legged in his own living room, his eyes glued to an old TV screen, with a VCR hooked up underneath it, as well a stack of old school videotapes, which all had an underlying theme in common. _Galaxy Trek, 3001 a Space Odyssey, Chest-Bursting-Aliens, That Time the Earth Stopped Moving and Everybody was like Whaaa? _And the movie that Vincent was currently watching, _Interstellar Battle Wars: Episode V_

"_**Bobi Tonobi never told you what happened to your father, did he?"**_

"_**He told me you killed him!"**_

"_**No, I am your father!"**_

Vincent gasped, shocked beyond words at this revelation. "All my fan theories were right!"

"_**He also never told the story of how I became a master of evil…. because apparently your space adventures were way cooler than mine. You see, it all began when we meet the most diabolical and evil alien of all time…. Yar Yar Blanks"**_

"_**NOOOOOOOOOO!""**_

"Yeah" Bill drawled, nudging Vincent with his elbow. "You definitely_ don't_ have a sci-fi fetish"

Even with his pale grey skin, Vincent's cheek's still rose up enough in colour to show that he was blushing with embarrassment as he turned his head down, avoiding Bill's eye.

The scene changed once again. They were now in a long empty hallway, lined with paintings and suits of armour. Scattered around the floor of the hall were numerous toys, such as spaceships, aliens, robots and laser guns.

At the end of the hallway, the young Vincent was now sitting in a swivel chair, wearing a makeshift helmet with a glass lid tapped to the front, reminisce of the kind astronaut's used. He kicked his foot off the floor, picking up speed as he zoomed down the hair, holding a toy spaceship over his head.

"Blast off! Space adventurer, Captain Vincent is on the way". He sped up and down the hallway on his chair, oblivious to everything except the world of his own imagination. He then spun around in his chair, laughing with pure joy as he waved his toy ship around in air. "Whoosh! Whoosh! Pew pew!"

Bill suddenly burst out laughing. "Omg! Did you just make little laser noises with your mouth?! That is hilarious! "

This time around, Vincent didn't look the least bit sad at seeing this private recollection. Instead he seemed more ashamed than anything else, turning his head away from his younger self with a scowl, unable to look at him any longer, as if he some object of disgust. On top of that he was also feel an enormous sting of humiliation from Bill's constant condescending mockery.

"So looks like the kid you was dead set about going into space?" Bill said. "Yeah, too bad nobody ever told you about those giant balls of fiery gas that release ultraviolet rays of light that kill you on contact." Bill's body flickered once again, now showing the image of the sun. "Didn't really think that one through did ya?"

"Shut up" Vincent muttered under his breath

"Like a guy with no hands who wants to be a heart surgeon" Bill continued, unperturbed by is remark. "Boy did he live a sad and disappointed life. Couldn't even open a ketchup bottle. But that's just a lesson of life Junior. No matter how badly you wish upon a star, in reality it's nothing but a big ball of burning gas and radiation that'll disintegrate you into a pile of ash if you try to reach up and touch it. Point is, don't dream for something you'll never get to do. Otherwise you might look a little stupid. Which you did!"

"Shut up!" Vincent yelled furiously, rounding on Bill. For a brief moment, a strange red wave of energy fluctuated across the room, which then began to shake violently, as if a huge tremor had just struck. "I get the picture! I've seen enough already. Now just end this!"

However, Bill on the other hand, didn't look as though he had any intention of ending it yet. In fact quite the opposite. He now looked more eager than ever to continue.

"Oh, touched a nerve, did I? Why stop now, when we're about to reach the part where everything in your life went horrible wrong?" Bill raised his fingers up and slowly started to lower each one as if he was counting down, before flicking his finger down the hallway.

"For the last time Dad, the answer is no!"

On cue, the young Vincent stopped in the middle of his playing, turning his attention to the sound of his father's raised voice. Walking down toward the front room, he peeked through the crack in the open door, watching as his parents were caught in a heated argument with a shrouded figure by the burning fireplace. Bill and Vincent followed him, passing right through the door into the room just as his father continued his quarrel against the figure.

"We've through this a hundred times Dad. You're not taking Vincent back with you to Gravity Falls"

The figure moved away from the fire place, revealing the wrinkled, greyish and dyspeptic face of Vincent grandfather, Vladimir Von Voltaruss III

"Well that's fine, but I came here to take Vladimir back" he said, in what seemed to be a deliberately very poor attempt at humour. His son just threw his arms up, rubbing his eyes with frustration.

"His name is Vincent. And the answer is still no!"

"You're wasting that boy's future, the future of our family" Vladimir growled. "He could have such great potential if you just let me nurture it. Unlike you of course" he spat at his son, with a look of pure contempt. "You became a worthless wash up of a vampire. You really want to see your own kid go to waste like you did? Believe me it's not a pretty sight"

"That's enough!" Vincent's mother exclaimed, incensed, marching right up to her father-in-law, glaring right him. "Our son will be nurtured here, with his father and me!"

"And do what?" Vladimir said, showing even more distain toward her than he did to his son. "Spend his days around playing spaceman, like some stupid child? You're really going to let him turn his back on his own destiny?"

"He _is_ a child!" she said through her gritted teeth. "And his _destiny_ isn't up to you to decide!"

"A_ turned_ vampire like you would never understand" Vladimir said, pushing past her to address his son. "That boy is the one we've been waiting for. He can finally do what my father, my grandfather and even I failed to do, if you would just let me show him how to-"

"I don't want to hear about that anymore!" Vincent's father snapped impatiently. "It is over. It's time we let this thing go and move on. We're not going to get caught up in the past anymore or worry over the future. We're all happy with how things are in the present". He then sighed heavily, regarding his father with a more sympathetic look. "Dad, please" he pleaded. "If you just give this chance, then I know we all be a family together"

"Family means nothing without dedication" Vladimir said. "We've spent nearly 400 years working on our mission and you're prepared to all that effort and sacrifice go to waste?" He walked up to his son, who looked him dead in the eye, unflinching.

"Mark my words, you'll come to regret this" he whispered darkly. Vladimir marched down to the nearest door leading out. Just as he opened it, he turned back to his son one last time.

"And by the way, next time I'll bring you back another set of pants seeing as how you've lost your own!" And with that, he slammed the door with a resounding thud echoing in the room.

Vincent's mother growled deeply, her eyes fixed on the door Vladimir had exited through, her whole body now shaking with rage. "Oh, that wrinkled old son of a bi-"

"Darling!" her husband said sharply, grabbing his wife by the shoulders as it looked she was about to break something. "It's fine. Just give him time, he'll come around"

"Or he'll just drop dead soon" she said coldly. "That one gets my vote"

"Well, unfortunately the downside of being a vampire is that we don't die of age. We'd need someone to stick a stake through his heart"

"Do you need a volunteer?" she asked her husband, with a slight smirk. Despite themselves, they both burst out laughing at this comment. They then a small creak coming from the door behind and spotted Vincent as he was eavesdropping. Seeing that he was discovered, he walked out from behind the door and up to his parents, taking off his space helmet.

"Mom, Dad, were you and Grandpa fighting again?" he asked, rubbing his right arm anxiously. "Was it because of me?"

"Oh no. It's not your fault son" his father said, getting down on one knee. "Your grandfather is just really….traditional about things. He doesn't like to do things different then what we've always done. I would have turned out the same as him, till I met you mother and together we have such a wonderful family"

"Every time Grandpa comes over here, he says he wants me to go visit him at his house" Vincent said. "Why?"

"You don't need to worry about that darling. Okay?" his mother said soothingly, kissing him on the forehead. "Don't worry. It's not your fault". She pulled her son into a tight hug and was soon joined by her husband. Together, the three vampires warmly embraced each other, as if they would never let go again.

"Booooorrriiiiiing!"

In that one instant everything in the room, including the young Vincent and his parents, suddenly froze itself, like someone had just pressed the pause button on the memory. As a matter of fact someone did. Bill floated away from Vincent and was now hovering directly above the life sized mosaic of his family.

"I gotta tell you, if I wanted this kind of sappiness, I'd go kiss a tree" he said to Vincent. "But you know, it's the boring moments like these that you really ought to cherish. Because let me tell you, boring doesn't last too long. This universe is really nothing but a series of chemicals just waiting to spontaneous combust upon itself. And the thing about combustion is that all it takes is one….little…spark".

Bill opened out his palm and released a tiny, blue speck of fire. When it touched the ground, it was as if someone had opened the doors of an incinerator, as an inferno of fire burst forth from underneath the floor, consuming everything, including the young Vincent and his parents, who along with Bill, disappeared into the flames, leaving Vincent alone in the room.

Everything around him was now ablaze, the floor, the celling, the furniture, all burning wildly. Though he was in no clear danger, as he felt no heat coming from the flames around him, he had never been more scared right now then he had been his entire life. Glancing around the burning room, his body was trembling uncontrollably. He placed his hands up to his mouth, looking as terrified as a small child, as he actually started hyperventilating with fear.

"Mom! Dad!"

Vincent just barely was able to register the sound of his younger self who came rushing into the room desperately searching for his parents, before running out another door. Not minute after he had left, the door that he came through burst open, a large number of angry looking men, wielding clubs and torches, came swarming into the room.

From the back of the crowd, Acton Abendroth stepped forward, holding a red hot glowing dagger in his hand. He brandished the blade in the direction the young Vincent had fled in.

"After them!" he ordered. "We can't a single one escape!" With a war cry, the mob continued the relentless pursuit of their quarry. The flames then jumped up at Vincent once again, blinding him to everything but the flames. Then in an instant, the fire dispersed itself into nothing and once it was gone, the scenery had changed yet again.

Vincent was now out in the dark woods by himself. Just ahead of him, he could see his younger self, hiding behind a tree, watching as his home was slowly burnt down to ash in front of him. Another group of men stood in front of the fire, still on the lookout for any stranglers. Before they had a chance to spot him, the young Vincent ran off into the wilderness, alone and afraid, leaving his home behind him.

"That Acton sure did hate vampires, didn't he?" Bill reappeared next to Vincent, watching as his younger self vanished into the foliage of the trees. "Shame your parents didn't make it out of there in time. And with nowhere else to turn to, you eventually found your way to live with your dear old grandfather"

The young Vincent, now slightly taller, his hair having grown out a bit more since the last time, was standing in the centre of a huge underground chamber, the figure of his imposing grandfather towering over him.

"Now remember Vladimir" he said. "It's up to you to fulfil the destiny of our family. And it all starts here. I'll show you have to use your powers and when the time comes, you'll achieve true greatness for yourself. Only through complete and total dedication to your mission will you unlock your full potential. And remember, only success brings value and worth. Anything failure, any setback, any mistake of any kind, is nothing but a mark of worthlessness"

The memories now started to pass by in quick succession like a slideshow. The young Vincent was crunching his face in concentration as he tried to levitate the cinder block in front of him. When he failed to even make it budge, he was rewarded with slap to the back of the head by his grandfather. Next, he was sitting at a desk by candle light, surrounded by a mountain of books, his eyelids drooping down as he read through each of them. Next came Vincent standing on a large poll, preparing to jump off as he tried perfect his flying. But everything time he jumped, all he received was a face full of solid floor.

Next, Vincent was kneeling by the window, gazing longingly up to the moon in the sky. Behind him, his grandfather was standing by the fireplace, shifting through some books in his hands.

"Grandpa, can I go outside today?" he asked.

"No, it's too dangerous out there for you" Vladimir answered.

"But you said that there weren't any more vampire hunters after us" Vincent moaned sadly, turning to face his grandfather.

"Yes, but there are still humans out there and humans will always be dangerous for us. You couldn't possibly look after yourself out there in the real world. Now get back to your studies!"

The memories then became even more rapid, now only consisting of Vladimir angrily berating his grandson throughout his constant failures.

"You still haven't gotten right yet? How many times do we have to go through this? Are you _that _completely worthless?!"

"You failed again! Worthless!"

"Do want to be worth anything in your life? Then start showing some results!"

"Worthless. Worthless. Worthless. Worthless. WORTHLESS!"

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Vincent screamed, shutting his eyes and pressing his hands into the side of his head, his grandfather's booming voice resounding from all directions around. "Stop calling me that! I did the best I could!"

"Yeah, but that wasn't enough apparently" Bill said apathetically. "Not for that old bat. No matter how hard you tried, you just couldn't get the hang of your powers. But then one day, you meet someone who you thought could help you"

The scene changed to that of some underground laboratory. The young Vincent, with a more cheerful appearance, was shaking hands with a man who had a six fingered hand.

"But that didn't end to well for you either" Bill continued.

The young Vincent was now watching helplessly from the shadows, as Vladimir fought against the six fingered man, who managed to slay the ancient vampire with a stake to the heart

As the memory faded away, Vincent cringed painfully, dropping to his knees in despair, burying his face into hands, unable to watch anymore of this unfold.

"Enough!" he cried aloud, losing all sense of composure and pride. "I don't what to see this anymore. Please just stop it!"

"But we haven't even gotten to best part yet!" Bill cheered merrily. He snapped his fingers yet again, this time bringing up another door, one that had two red bats painted on it. The blood drained away from Vincent's face when the realization of what was behind that door hit him.

"Wondering what's behind this door?" Bill asked him. "The look on your face tells me it's something mind blowing. Let's go see!"

"No!" Vincent ran up to Bill, his arms outstretched, blocking from going any further. "No, you're not seeing that!" he cried, his voice cracking, as he seemed to be on the verge of tears "You can't look at that! Get out! Get out right now!"

Bill chuckled softly, giving Vincent a patronizing look. "Kid, if there is one thing I don't recommend, it's telling me what I _can't _do". He phased through Vincent's body with a moment's pause and hovered over to the door, snapping his fingers

Slowly, the door churned itself open, but then, when it was about half way through, it abruptly stopped, reversed direction and then slammed shut. With a look of genuine surprised, Bill snapped his fingers again. The door started to open, but then shut closed once again. Bill repeatedly started snapping his fingers, growing a bit flustered at this apparent act of defiance from a door which was now completely unmoving.

"Snap, snap, snap! Are these fingers broken?!" Bill exclaimed, clearly frustrated. He flew closer to the door and tried to open it by hand, but once he touch the handle, a sudden flash of red energy knocked him back from it. Shaking his head, as if dazed, Bill watched as the door was enveloped in a colouring red sphere, keeping it safe from away intrusion.

Before he had time to question what this was or to give another witty remark, Bill then noticed a bright crimson light coming from directly behind him. He turned around to see another glowing sphere of red energy building up around Vincent's, who no longer looked scared or desperate. Instead, some kind of switch had been turned inside his head and he was now burning with anger like had never been before. And all of it was focused on Bill.

"I…. said…. get…. **OUT!"**

At the sound of that last syllable, a massive explosion erupted from around Vincent, as though he was a nuclear bomb that had just gone off. A shock wave of red energy struck at Bill like a bulldozer and in less than one second, he was completely vaporised, the outline of body briefly illuminating within the flash of crimson light.

When everything had died down, Vincent, panting like crazy, found himself to be alone once again, standing on some barren and desolate piece of rock, place on the top of a stone pillar. Still panting heavily, Vincent sat down on the cold stone, hugging his legs to his chest, shivering slightly.

He then noticed a top hat floating in the air up above him. The hat started to wobble a little, before dropping out a set of arms, legs and a huge eyeball. These appendages took up position under the hat as a line in the shape of a triangle formed in-between them, with the eyeball in the middle. The space inside the line turned back to bright yellow.

"Wow! Now that was a ride!" Bill said, sounding exhilarated.

"I told you to leave me alone!" Vincent yelled, getting back to his feet, advancing on him.

"Woah, woah. Slow down there Junior" Bill said, raising his hands defensively. "It wasn't anything personal. I just had to see for myself. And man, did you not disappoint! You're definitely his great-great grand kid alright."

"What are you talking about?" Vincent demanded

"I'm talking about your physic powers kid!" Bill replied. "They're through the roof. I'd say you may be even more powerful than your ancestor. Heck, the whole reason I even made that deal with him in the first pace was because his abundance in physic energy. You see in the mindscape, the true power of a person lies in the untapped potential of brain itself". Bill materialized the image of a large brain in the air. He waved his hand, showing an x-ray scan of the brain, highlighting the neurons within.

"Even for a regular human, by simply concentrating hard enough they can give themselves amazing power within this place. Ever hear the phase mind of over matter? In this world, matter is the mind and what matters is what you don't mind doing. But vampires naturally possesses superior mental abilities to human. Some kind can minds, some can hypnotise people. Your ancestor, Vladimir the first, he was the most powerful physic of his day! But even he could never knocked the wind out of me like you just did! And that is probable the most honest answer I've given to you all day!"

"So all of this was just a stupid test?" Vincent said indignantly, his rage flaring up again.

"Eh, I'd call it research" Bill shrugged nonchalantly. "I knew there was something special about you. Your father, grandfather and great grandfather never showed half the promise that you have. That's why I've been keeping an eye on you over the years. You just might have what it takes"

"What it takes for what?" Vincent asked.

"Oh nothing" Bill said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I just have another job opening lined up for later in case you might be interested. But back to real reason why we're here"

Bill waved his hand again, the image of the brain vanishing. The blue sphere containing the page from Journal #1 appeared in Bill's hands once again, ready for Vincent to take.

But Vincent was no longer in any mood to barter for anything. "Look, I don't care what you want or what you're offering. Just leave me alone!"

"Hey, come on now Junior" Bill said quickly. "This could be your best and only chance to get your hands on the last page you need. Why makes hard on yourself? Hasn't life been hard enough on you already?"

Vincent remained silent, ether unwilling or unable to answer Bill, who took the opportunity to continue his speech.

"I mean, you're whole family tried and failed to complete their all-important mission. And now that whole legacy has been thrown down on and you alone. Talk about pressure. And you thought with the Abendroths finally out of the way, you'd have a shot on your own. After all the struggles you've had to endure up till now and all the things you've lost, who would blame you for wanting to just catch an easy break? Just a little pick me up. Life is nothing if not unfair and for someone like yourself who knows that first hand, I would think that you'd love just one little favour thrown your way for a change." As Bill spoke, his body started to replay the events that he and Vincent had already witnessed in his mind. The loss of his family, his grandfather's cruel tutelage, his first and second defeat at the hands of the Pine Twins. These images made Vincent's stomach twist with agony.

"Nobody has to know really" Bill said. "You yourself said it, you're on a time limit. You've only got till the end of summer and if you don't succeed, then all that pain and hardship you've been through up until now would all be for nothing. And didn't you make a promise to a certain someone that you'll succeed no matter what? You don't want the guilt of a dead person on your conscious do you?"

Vincent turned his head down, fear and anxiety gripping the inside of his chest. Every word that Bill was saying pushed him further and further into a corner. He knew that what he was saying was nothing but negotiation tactics, but it was still successful in hitting the right mark on him. Bill seemed to sense this himself, as he moved closer to Vincent, holding his palm out to him.

"What'd ya say kid? We have ourselves a deal?"

Turning his back to Bill, Vincent pulled out his amulet from underneath his vest. He stared at it for the longest time, his expression sorrowful. He then closed his eyes and when he opened them up again, his unshakable resolve had returned to him. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he turned around to face Bill once more.

"Alright. Deal!" Vincent quickly clasped his hand around Bill's, locking their agreement into place. Once they had joined together a blue flame wrapped around their hands.

"Oh, by the way" Bill said coyly. "I may have deliberately forgot to mention this but….this is might **hurt a bit!**"

Like a hungry snake, the blue fire spread up Vincent's arm, covering his entire body in flames. It seemed Bill hadn't been lying because this did indeed hurt, but a lot more than just a bit. Vincent screamed in pain as the flames were not in fact burning his flesh, but rather it felt like they were literally passing through his body like a blast of cold air.

When the flames finally died down, Vincent dropped to his knees, his body sizzling. Throughout the whole ordel, his hand had still be holding onto Bill's, who then finally released him.

In the palm of Bill's was a glowing green orb. Seeing this orb, Vincent pulled out his amulet, confirming that there was now only one green jewel left.

"A pleasure doing business with you!" Bill said, immensely satisfied. He pulled off his top hat and dropped the green ball into it. "Well anyway, a deal's a deal". The Journal page hovered down from behind him, dropping right in front of Vincent.

"Well this has been fun, but I gotta run" Bill said, raising up above Vincent. "I have a feeling I'll be seeing you again soon Junior. Till then, I'll be watching! Always watching!"

Bill stretched his arms out in an odd pose as a wheel of images appeared around his body. For a split second, it looked like Bill had become some kind of picture along with the wheel, which seemed to match up him perfectly. Then in a flash of light, both Bill and his wheel then disappeared.

When it looked as though Bill was indeed gone this time, it took Vincent a moment to realise what he should do next. He glanced down at the page still laying out in front of him. Without a moment of hesitance, he reached out to touch the page and then in another flash, everything was gone

* * *

With a jolt, Vincent's opened up his eyes and shot himself straight from within his crypt. Feeling a little groggy, he rubbed the side of his head, trying to piece together what had just happened, for a moment thinking that all if had literally been nothing but a bad dream. Then it happened. He felt the information he needed flow into his mind, as if he always known it.

Getting up out of his crypt, Vincent took out a pen and paper from his cape. He then got down on his knees and started to draw. For almost a full minute he brushed his pen across the page, his hand moving almost by itself. Once he was finished, he pulled out the page he had taken from Journal #3 and the photocopied page from Journal #2, laying them out beside the page he had just written down.

Between the three of them, there didn't seem to be anything of significance. The Journal#3 page contained details of a negative 7 headed hydra monster, the Journal#2 page was an extract on how to remove a cursed toilet seat and the Journal#1 page was nothing but a jumbled up page of numbers and ciphers.

But Vincent could see a connection between these pages that only one other person alive could possible see. With perfect precision and a steady hand, he folded the three pages together like some kind of origami arts project. All three pages were now joined in a hexagon shape, the lines and markings of each page now lined up perfectly to each, forming the very thing Vincent had been after for so long.

A map. A map of Gravity Falls, as draw by Stanford Pines, with three different locations of importance marked on it. Holding the map up to the celling, Vincent smiled to himself. Not out of pride or arrogance, but out of genuine happiness, as he was finally getting closer to completing his ultimate goal. And without even realising it himself, he started to cry.

* * *

**Whew. That was longer than expected, but I'm glad I decided to split this up from the last chapter since it have me more time to build this one up. Also happy that I manage to keep to my schedule and update within a week's time.**

**Anyway, hoped you liked the chapter. It shows some of Vincent's past for the first time. There is more to tell of course, but I didn't think I should give it all away just yet. And yeah, Bill has some more plans for Vincent.**

**So, next chapter will be getting back to Dipper and the others, where both Dipper and Mabel end up in a complicated situation. And finally, I hope everybody is ready for the finale of Weirdmageddon this week. Let's all do this ending proud**

**Till then, please review and peace out.**


	26. First Kiss, followed by First Fainting

**I know I said I wanted to post at least one chapter a week, but I took some time off in order to fully digest the Weirdmageddon finale. Gravity Falls was a great ride from beginning to end, and I'm very happy for the day when I discovered it by pure chance. Hopefully we'll see a return for it someday, but for now, I think it's best to let the series stands as it is. **

**Also, here's something I haven't really done before, but I think I might try and responded to people who give the most previous reviews**

**NickStriker**: He might, he might not. The bottom line was that Vincent had to go live with him, which is what he wanted. And it's also what Bill wanted

**Soos: **Yeah, I did start off with more a horror theme, but that was just too hard to maintain so I mellowed things out

**coldblue: **Out of the two twins, Vincent definitely hates Dipper more. And the feeling's mutual, as Dipper as begun to see Vincent as a real nemesis, which I think is something Dipper would secretly love.

Ask me that again, after the next chapter

It has to be this summer because of a certain event that's coming up and if you want to know what their goal was, I'm afraid you have to ask Bill.

**Sturm and Drang: **Thank you. Accurate portrayal is what I strive for the most, but I doubt I'm successfully most of the time. Glad you liked Vincent. He started off as just be an entity of pure evil, but the more I wrote about him, the more I felt that needed to flesh him out

**Guest: **Yeah, I really do need to do that

* * *

On an uncharacteristically cloudy summer day, Dipper was on counter duty in the Mystery Shack, but due to the lack of costumers, he decided to take the opportunity and pass the time by going over some of his notes, while updating his web of ever growing conspiracy.

He then heard the faint sound of music playing in the distance. The source of the music revealed itself when Mabel strutted her way into the shop, coming from interior of the shack, carrying a pink, kid sized boom box over her shoulder, with long extension cord connected to its back that stretched down the hall from where she came. She placed the boom box the nearest shelf and turned up the volume, after which she started to slide across the room, going with the rhyme of the music.

"And one two three. One two three. Work it, work it, work it. Little jazz here, little hip hop there, sprinkle on some krumpin. Now shake it, get the crowd rolling. Make them love you, make them hate you cos they ain't you"

Dipper watched impassively as Mabel did what might be the most bizarre set dance sequences in the history of the art form. Her movement's fluctuated at the drop of a hat, going from street style to ballroom, hustle to samba, breakdance to…miming?

Most bizarrely, she somehow managed to get her upper body to do a pretty good robot, while at the same time having her legs do a Russian folk dance

Dipper could only continue to stare at his sisters erratic movements, not sure if she was trying to invent some new kind of dance routine or if she in the middle of a spastic episode.

"Do I even have to ask?" he said.

"I'm practicing for the local dance contest tonight in town" she answered, without any pause in her momentum, pushing her arms out and rotating them in a circle motion. She pulled out a piece of paper from under her sweater and handed it to Dipper as she did a moon walk past the counter. He read over the flyer that, using big and exuberant words, advertised a special dance off competition to be held in town for any willing participants.

"So is there any particular reason that you're doing this?" Dipper asked

"You don't need a _reason_ to dance" Mabel replied, doing a Batusi gesture with her hands. "Just an_ excuse_ to dance! Dancing is all about feeling the music and then giving up your free will to it, letting invent new and involuntarily ways of how to move your body parts. I've been going like this nonstop since I found out about the contest". She jumped in the air and landed on a perfect split between her legs, that was also followed by an unpleasant cracking sound. With a very forced smile of regret, before she slowly got back to her feet and resumed dancing.

"I figure that if I turn everything I do into a dance move, then my body won't remember how to move normally anymore. Those suckers better watch out. I'm going to serve up some serious servings of getting served!" she said, while doing a gangster pose.

"Oh, you heard about the dance contest tonight?" Soos said, entering the room, having overheard their conversation. "Awesome sauce, dude. I'm actually gonna be judge there tonight, as my body is naturally equipped with an applause-o-meter. But you do know you got have a dance partner with you right?"

The music on Mabel's boom box suddenly cut itself off and was followed by the sound of a record being scratched against a needle on a record player, all of which collaborated together with Mabel as she lost her footing and was sent tumbling right into a stack of postcards.

Stan poked his head out through the doorway, holding up a plug in one hand and an old record under his other arm. "Sorry. I was carrying around this old record player and listening to some post- modern-pre-classical music, when I accidentally tripped and pulled out this plug, while at the same time, loudly scathing the record off the needle. Hope I didn't comically time that with a big surprising revelation"

"Partner!?" Mabel exclaimed, getting to her feet again, looking visibly distressed. "But the flyer didn't say anything about having a partner"

"Uh, Mabel?" Dipper cleared his throat and indicated to the back of the flyer. Taking the paper from him, Mabel saw at the very bottom corner on the back was a small notification which said that all entrants must have a partner with them.

"Probably should have advertised that better" Dipper pointed out, turning the flyer back around. "Who put this thing together?"

"Oh, I made the flyers too" Soo said. There was a long silence in the room. He chuckled. "Yeah, in retrospect, I probably should have saved some space on the front for that part, but like Mr Pines always taught me. Use big and bold headlines on the front to get people's attention. Then use small print for the boring details on the back so they'll skip over it"

"This horrible!" Mabel exclaimed, grabbing her face. "All of my rigorous practice and preparation in the two hours since I found out about the contest will now go to waste! What am I going to do now?"

"Don't sweat it Mabel" Soos said. "All you got to do is get a partner"

"I know. I'll take Waddles!" she said. "He can never turn down a dance party. Which I choose to assume is because he loves to do it rather than he has no developed vocal chords to say no"

"No can do Mabel" Soos said, shaking his head. "Your partner has to be human, or least a mammal of some kind that stands on its hind legs."

"But where else am I gonna find a dance partner by tonight?" Mabel spent a few moments thinking this over in her mind, when she then came to the very obvious, yet at the same time, very desperate conclusion to her problem. Folding her hands together and putting on a very sweet smile, she turned in the direction of her brother on the counter. "Dipper?"

"No" he said flatly, without even looking from his notes.

"Actually my question was going to be to if you _don't_ want to be my dance partner" Mabel said quickly. "Which means you just said yes!"

"The answer is no Mabel" Dipper said once again, shaking his head firmly. "I'm not going to join your dance contest"

"But I need you to be my partner!" Mabel said, moving up to the counter. "We'll be a team. The Cybernetic Bungalow's"

"I never agreed to that name" Dipper said bluntly. "And unless the two of us dancing together is the only method to defeat a horde of brain eating zombies and or otherwise reanimated corpses, then there is pretty much nothing else that can motivate me get up on a stage and start dancing in front a crowd". Dipper's stern expression softened a little once he saw the sad look in Mabel's eyes. He sighed heavily and set his notes back into his Journal.

"Look Mabel, I'm sorry, but I'm sure you'll find someone else who can be your partner for tonight" he said with more sympathy. "Anyway, there's some stuff I need to check out today, but I'll be around later to help you look for someone else ok?"

"…..Ok" Mabel said sadly.

Still feeling slightly guilty, but satisfied, Dipper nodded his head. There then came the sound of someone knocking on the shop door. Taking this as his cue, Dipper dropped down from the counter and opened the door to a small, breaded man dressed up in a fancy butler suit, a long black limousine stretched out behind him

"Greetings, Master Dipper. You're presence has been requested by the young mistress of the household. If you would be so kind as to follow me, so that I may offer my services as transportation. Please do not ask for. I only get paid for this impression by the hour"

"Uh, yeah, sure" Dipper replied. He turned back to Mabel and Soos. "I'll see you guys later, ok? Bye". Giving them a short wave goodbye, he followed the butler out the door and down to limousine. Mabel and Soos crowed together by the window, watching the limousine drive off.

"Whoa, whoa, rewind a second here dude" Soos said after a moment of silence. "I'm gonna need like, an exposition shot here or some kind of scene transition just to keep up"

* * *

Inside the Northwest Manor, Pacifica was sitting alone in her spacious bedroom, idly reading a magazine. There came a knock on her door, which then opened up to the same white bearded butler

"Presenting Master Dipper"

After his presence had been announced, Dipper, whose clothes were for some reason now covered in an assortment of grime and filth, with flies buzzing around his head, walked into the room, a humourless expression across his face.

"Why exactly did I have to come in through the garbage cute?" he asked Pacifica, trying very hard to not to sound angry as he swatted the flies away

"It's for your own sake" she replied, not sounding overly sympathetic. "If my parents caught you sneaking in here, they'd sue you for trespassing"

"How's it trespassing when you invited me here?"

"That's your word against mine" Pacifica said, with a vague shrug. "Now what did you want to see here that was so important?"

"I wanted to find out more about that bracelet you said you borrowed off your Mom" Dipper said. "Vincent mentioned that it was some kind of charm that could be used against him. I want to find out where it came from"

"Well, my Mom did say it was an heirloom she got from my grandfather, Winston Northwest" Pacifica said, thoughtfully. "He gave it to her as wedding gift"

"So where did he get it?"

"I don't know. He also had a mounted Ivory Antlered Moose head and nobody knows where to get those anymore". Pacifica thought in silence for moment. "There _is_ an old room upstairs that he used to use as his study. There might be something in there"

"Well that's as good as any place to start. So let's get going and-"

Dipper cut himself off when he noticed a picture of Mabel, hung up in front of a dartboard on the wall, with a number of darts and other pointed objects embedded into it.

"Ah, that's an old thing" Pacifica said, hurriedly pulling the picture down and throwing it away. "Was meaning to get rid of that. Seriously"

Dipper cast her a slightly dubious look, but decided not to press the matter further. Leaving Pacifica's room, they travelled to the upper story of the house, Dipper having to take extra caution that he wouldn't be seen by Pacifica's parents. Eventually they arrived at a doorway of a room, isolated at the end of the hallway. They entered the room, although it was too dark to see things clearly. Flicking the light switch, they got a better look at the rusty study they found themselves. Based on the clear line of dust on everything, it looked as though no used this room any longer.

Up on the far wall, was a huge portrait of what must have been, based on the resemblance to Pacifica's father Preston, Winston Northwest. On the opposite wall, there was the mounted head of what was once a very large moose, which had antlers than looked to be made of solid ivory.

At the other end of the room, was a desk situated behind a closed window. Seeing that as the best opportunity, Dipper trotted over to the desk, followed by Pacifica. Scanning the desk, which was bare expect for a small stack of books, Dipper bent down to have a look at the drawers underneath. Checking drawers each one, he kept on eye out for anything of interest, but found nothing. That is until he opened the second drawer from the bottom.

"What is this?" Dipper asked. From inside the drawer, he pulled out what looked to be an old set of medieval style metal shackles, with a long chain in between. Upon closer inspection, Dipper could make some kind of strange glyphs etched into the metal. Growing more curious he set the shackles on the floor and dug deeper into the drawer to see what else he could find.

And what he did find was a heavy, sliver balled mace and wooden handle, roughly the size of a small hatchet. After eyeing the mace for a moment and setting beside the shackles, the next item that Dipper found was an old and worn out envelope, which had already been opened. Inside the envelope was a letter. Down at the bottom of the letter was the name Acton Abendroth. Without waiting for any kind of formal consent, he started to read it out loud.

"_My dearest and most trusted friend Winston. I thank you for all the kindness and generosity you have shown me since I arrived here in this town along with my family. You are certainly not evil or underhanded in anyway. That is why, as your friend, I must warn you of the vampire scourge that threaten this town. As a sign of my trust in you, I leave to you these items that to protect yourself and your family. The first is an Ostracise charm, which has been specifically configured to vampires. As long as any member of your family wears this charm, your home will be shielded from any invading vampire while inside"_

Dipper took another look inside the drawer, but could see no charm laying inside, confirming that this was indeed where it originated from.

"_The next item is Mystical Metal Manacles of Malignant Manageability."_ Dipper paused for a moment as he read over that line again a few extra times.

"_That's not what they're actually called, but I'm a fan of alliteration. Place both ends of these shackles on a vampire's wrists and they will render them powerless. Remember, both ends must be place in order for it to work"._

Dipper glanced down at the metal restraints beside him, a number of ideas already formulating in his mind, before retuning his attention back to the letter

"_And finally, in case of more dire emergencies, a mace coated with the essence of silver. A bit more of a brusque tactic I know, but it has other qualities that will be good for defensive. Use the weapons well so that you and your family will be safe. I wish you the best of luck my dear friend who I trust complete and without fail"_

Dipper reread through the letter a few more times in silence, trying to absorb all its contents, trying to piece together what this all meant.

"So Winston Northwest became friends with Acton Abendroth" he said. "Help him but the ice cream parlour for his cover and in return, Acton gave him these items to protect himself from the Voltaruss family. But what happened after that?"

"Maybe this might tell us something" Dipper looked up to see Pacifica holding a brown, small diary that she had found on the desk.

"This is my grandfather's diary" she said. "It has the same signature he did. Listen to this"

"_Today was a fine day. I managed to bag yet another Ivory Antler Moose. Some fool wanted to place in animal sanctuary where it would be persevered, but lucky I bribed the zoo keeper there to leave on my property so that I could legally shoot it. Pity that was the last one in existence, which just goes to show how unreliable mother nature truly is."_

"Try skipping ahead" Dipper suggested. "Here's the date the letter was first delivered"

Pacifica did as Dipper said and flipped ahead a couple of pages, stopping when she found the name they were looking for.

"_I have recently made the acquaintance of the Acton Abendroth, the mysterious European fellow who has moved here along with his family. After some negotiation, we have come to an arrangement where I would provide the start-up loan necessary for Acton to begin his own establishment, with me as his business partner. That Acton seemed like quite a nice fellow. Very amiable and really, really trusting of strangers which are qualities I have always valued in my friends"_

Pacifica turned to next page and kept reading, trying to ignore Dipper who was anxiously poking his head over her shoulder

"_Today has yielded a great prospect for me. My dear and only slightly trustworthy friend, Vladimir Von Voltaruss III has informed me that the Abendroth family are in fact the heirs to a massive fortune and has approached me with a lucrative opportunity. As I am Acton's sole business partner, I will not only take their ice cream parlour upon his demise, but his entire fortune as well, provided of course no other family heirs remain. Vladimir has assured me that he will force the entire Abendroth family to disappear from this town with no evidence left to implicate me_

Pacifica glanced over to Dipper, who had the same look of dreadful anticipation on his face as she did.

"_Good old Vladimir. I knew I could rely on him. I don't know where everyone keeps getting those awful rumours of him being a vampire. A terrible complexion is nothing to discriminate over. And it has been suggested that a healthy dosage of blood on occasion can be good for your diet. I must say though, I have schemed, fleeced, conned and doubled crossed a lot of people in my many, many, many years of monetary treachery, but that Acton has got to be the most gullible one yet. He didn't have the least bit of doubt that I was anything but a good and honest person. Frankly, I even felt a little sorry for his naivety, but that's the best part about money. It makes problems go away. And those gifts he gave me are more than anything an eyesore, save for maybe that bracelet of course, which will make a good gift for my son's next flame"_

"So that explains it" Dipper said, feeling the familiar mystery solving rush he so craved. "Acton Abendroth and his family came here to Gravity Falls searching for the Voltaruss. He must have thought Winston Northwest was someone he could trust after he bought him that ice cream parlour for his hideout, but then Winston sold the Abendroth's out to Vladimir III so that he could steal their fortune. But he still had these items that Acton left him. He must have kept them hidden here so no one would find out. This really could a huge breakthrough in-"

Dipper paused in his monologue when he noticed something odd. He turned to Pacifica, who was still holding her grandfather's diary in her hands, a resentful look across her face.

"Are you ok?" Dipper asked.

"Great" she replied, in a tone that suggested any but the word, tossing the book to the floor. "I just get to add another horrible thing to the list of horrible things my horrible family has done. Lying, double crossing. Hanging out with vampires. Can it seriously get any worse than that? I really am asking you a question"

Dipper was unable to give a reply other an incoherent mumble. With an angry groan, Pacifica kicked at her grandfather's old desk, before flopping down on the floor, pressing her back against it.

"No wonder I don't have any real friends. My family can't be friends with anyone unless we're just trying to exploit them"

Dipper stared down at Pacifica, feeling deeply sympathetic for the second time today. For a moment he didn't know what to say, but then his felt his face break into a wide. He bent down on knee beside her.

"I wouldn't say that. You somehow managed to make friends with me and Mabel. You know, despite how you started off as a super huge jerk and all that, but you're making good progress. It sounded like Acton was just too trusting of a person anyway. Your grandfather may have just taken advantage of him, but if you really want to be friends with someone, you have to learn to trust people, even if there is a chance you'll get hurt"

Pacifica turned to Dipper with surprise. "You…you really trust me?"

"Well, yeah of course I do. You're my friend" Dipper said, with a tone that would make you except him to follow up with a 'duh'. "So how about you stop your pity party and we can just move on with this okay? Remember, I'm not to supposed to be in your house"

Suddenly feeling a lot better, Pacifica smiled gratefully at Dipper as he helped her back to her feet. Deciding to call this an end to their search, Dipper packed up both the manacles and the mace he had found. They were just about ready to leave when they heard the sound of Preston Northwest's voice coming from down the hall

"Pacifica? Are you in there?"

The two of them immediately tensed up as they now heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

"It's my parents! What am I going to tell them?" Pacifica whispered urgently.

"How am I supposed to know?!" Dipper whispered back at her.

"Here take this!" she said, thrusting her grandfather's into Dipper's chest

"Don't give it to me!" he said, pushing it away.

"Pacifica what are you doing in your grandfather's study?"

Pacifica dropped the diary in her hands, glancing wildly around the room, going back and forth from the Dipper to the door, trying to think of some kind of excuse to get them both out of here without an explanation.

The footsteps ended just as Preston and his wife opened the door to old study, expecting to find their daughter waiting behind it. However, what they did not except to find their daughter currently locking lips with Dipper Pines, her hands cupped around his cheeks, pulling him close enough to embrace her.

"Good lord!" Preston pulled out a white handkerchief from his front pocket and started to gag gutturally into it as if he was on the verge of vomiting. His wife seemed to be of an equal opinion, backing away from the scene with shock.

"Oh my heavens! I could faint!" She then recomposed herself and gestured to a butler standing behind her. "Faint for me". The butler nodded and proceeded to faint in a satisfactory manner.

Seeing her parents in the room, Pacifica quickly released Dipper, who wobbled his feet for a second, his head bobbing back and forward, like his neck had just been turned into a spring. After a few moments, Preston regained control his stomach. He turned back around to his daughter, a furious look on his face.

"Pacifica Elsie Northwest, what on earth are you doing?!" he demanded.

"Um…exactly what it apparently looks like?" she answered awkwardly. Beside her, Dipper looked as though he might have been trying to say something, but in reality his mouth just fell open and he no longer seemed to have the ability to close it again.

"I am overwhelmed with emotion" Preston continued. "The most prominent being a case of severe nausea. That and a severe sense of disappointment in you my dear. Consorting yourself with such riff raff. Look at him". He gestured toward Dipper, who seemed to be completely unaware that he was being addressed. "I can't even tell where his riff ends and his raff begins. Not to mention he seems to earn his keep by going people's garbage". Preston then sniffed the air for a moment, realising something. "_Our_ garbage as a matter of fact!"

"Well, yeah….so what?" Pacifica said, with a more challenging tone in her voice. "I can consort or hang or-or kiss whoever I want"

"Not without _our_ permission, young lady" Preston said. "As you may recall, your mother and I clearly agreed upon any romantic endeavours you wish to pursue".

Preston pulled out a notebook he had within his pocket. Your first kiss is not scheduled for another two years and it be during our annual garden party, with the heir of Vague magazine, lasting exactly 3.7 seconds"

"While wearing a lavender dress" Priscilla added pointedly

"Oh, so you get to decide who I get to kiss now?" Pacifica said, her angry becoming more paramount. "You already get to decide on what I have to wear, what I have to say, what I eat

"My dear, you have been out of order for quite some time now. Embarrassing our family, tarnishing our name, disobeying our rules. Having…." Preston took another moment to heave into his handkerchief before resuming. "Having _opinions_ that are not approved to you by myself or your mother. There will be no more. You _will_ fall into line this instant or else-"

"Or else what?!" Pacifica snapped suddenly, advancing on her father, taking him and her mother both by surprised. "You're going to get a whistle for me instead!? Or maybe you'll get me a collar too, since you already put me on a leash"

"Well, actually we're just going use this electronic buzzer". He held up a small, electronic device, the size of a key chain. "See, you can set the tone to whatever you like. And it can be set on repeat". He pressed a button on the buzzer which started to produce a constant electronic beeping noise. This only seem worsened Pacifica's mood, as she could no longer contain her outrage.

"You two have to be the worst parents ever!" she yelled so loud that it snapped her parents out of her demeanour. "You try to control everything about me. I can't think how I want, I can't feel how I want. Because everything has to be about you and your image. Well I'm not gonna listen to your stupid bell anymore. You can't treat me like I'm some accessory that you can just parade around for the sake of your stupid reputation. I'm your daughter but that doesn't make me something that you own! All I want is for you to just treat me with a little respect and some independence for once, okay!?"

After she had finished, Pacifica was left panting heavily. Her father was momentarily at a loss for words from her outburst. After a few seconds he cleared his throat, and when he spoke some of his previous sense of dominance seemed lost

"Yes well…. uhh….I can see you've clearly entered into your more _rebellious_ phase. I supposed that this should expected at your age. Perhaps it would be best if you were allowed to work it out of your system. Very well. You may continue to express more of your, er, independence, and capacity to think for yourself. But of course, this will only last till the end summer". Preston bent down to Pacifica's level, narrowed his eyes at her, with a small hint of authority returning. "After that, we're going to have a very _serious_ revaluation concerning your discipline young lady"

Straightening himself again, he gestured toward his wife that it was time for them to leave, but then turned back to Pacifica just before he left through the door.

"Oh yes and you may continue your….er, courtship….with this young fellow whose name I didn't take squander any of my valuable time to remember. Just make sure to thoroughly disinfect yourself afterwards and leave no photographic evidence that may be used as blackmail"

Once she heard the door slam behind her parents, Pacifica let a huge sigh of relief. "Whew. That was close. I didn't think that was actually going to work. But did you see what I did there? I totally showed them I'm not scared anym-"

Her expression of excitement quickly melted into utmost horror when she remembered what had transpired just a few minutes ago.

"Oh jeez" she moaned, slapping her hand to her forehead. She hurriedly took but her purse, pulling a small wade of cash. "Um okay, how much will it take to pretend that didn't happen? One hundred? Two hundred? Does Mabel want a pony? I'll get here a whole farm! And a sweater factory. Just name your price, okay Dipper? Dipper?"

Dipper, who hadn't moved or say anything since Pacifica had kissed him by surprised, just stood rooted on the spot, his face frozen in a blank expression of shock, his eyes unblinking like a statue. Matter of fact he was so still, Pacifica wasn't even sure if he was still breathing. Cautiously, she gave him a single poke him in the shoulder, trying to get a response.

As stiff as a plank of solid wood, Dipper's whole body titled forward, his face slamming right onto the floor with a bam, his legs briefly flopping up in the air behind him, before lying completely flat and motionless


	27. Summer at the Library

**coldblue:** The only way Vincent could be Mabel's partner would be if they were literally chained together

**lennoxmacduffes:** Still doing it

**NickStriker:** Dipper was kinda lost his own world at the time. You'll see a bit more of his reaction in this chapter

**elderscrolls master:** I wanted to do more romance, but I kinda felt that my story was gearing more toward the adventure and mystery style you find in the show. Not to say there won't be anymore romance, but above everything else, I wanted to ease into it and I thought that would be the best moment

**Sturm and Drang:** Thank you. I wanted the kiss scene to be more of a spur of the moment type of thing that would to help bring out some of Dipper and Pacifica's inner feelings

* * *

The drive back into town was awkward to say the least. Both Dipper and Pacifica were sitting in the back seat of the limousine, an arm's length away from each other, neither of them speaking or making eye contact. Pacifica had her head lowered down, covering her eyes with one hand, looking mortified beyond words. Dipper on the other hand, was sitting up perfectly straight in his seat, absently tapping his palms against his knees, trying to keep his mind occupied.

"So….kissing huh?" he finally said, with a slightly anxious chuckle, glancing over at Pacifica. "You know, with the lips and the mouth, and the really close physical contact between two people and all that. Which we did. Together. You and I. When we kissed"

"We are not going to talk it" Pacifica said abruptly, sounding very clear-cut about the subject. "We're not going to make a big deal out of it. We're just going to pretend that it never happened and move on with our lives"

"Oh, right of course, of course" Dipper scoffed loudly. "Totally, we'll just totally do that, yeah". There was silence once again. Dipper then cleared his throat a little.

"Ummm, actually, the thing is, that might a little hard for me to do. Pretending that what happened back there, didn't really happen. You see, and I know this might hard be a little hard for you to believe, but I've never actually kissed a girl before….until today…..with you…..when you kissed me…..today…..for the first time….ever. Now, I'm trying _really _hard not to make a big deal out of that, buuuut-"

Dipper made a so-so gesture with his hands, almost like he was trying to ask Pacifica to cut him a bit of slack on the issue.

"Look, it was just a kiss ok?" she snapped impatiently. "It's not a big deal. It's like a handshake or a hug between friends. It's not like it has to mean something". She seemed to find something wrong with her own statement and started to shake her head, becoming more flustered. "No, no, I mean, it-it doesn't mean something. No, I mean anything! It won't mean anything. No! I mean it _didn't_ mean _anything. _At all!It was nothing but a stupid kiss, so let's just forget about it!"

"Didn't your dad say that was your first kiss too?" Dipper asked.

Pacifica suddenly started to blush, but turned her head up to the ceiling of the limo. "Well, yeah, but that's not important okay" she said very quickly. "I'll probably end up kissing a lot of people in my life and you…". She briefly waved her hand at him, with an awkward expression. "_Possibly _will too. Who cares who the first person you kiss is?

"Uh, yeah, of course!" Dipper said, sounding obnoxiously loud once again. "Who cares? It's just the first time a guy kisses a girl. It's not like one of those moments that you'll remember and cherish for the rest of your life. It's not like it's something that instantly fills you up with a bunch of insane, hormonal emotions that you don't know how to deal with and are possibly gonna drive me completely crazy"

"Oh come on, you can't be feeling that bad about it" Pacifica said in exasperation

"Well, aside from the severe case of sweatiness" Dipper said, absently wiping a great deal of moisture from his forehead. "I do have this really weird urge to go out and start bragging about what happened to as many people as possible. And I also have another weird urge to go home, run underneath my bed sheets and start crying uncontrollably for some reason"

"You brag about this to anybody and I'll deny it!" Pacifica warned him angrily. "And if you're going to start crying, then I'm going to go back to acting like you don't exist"

"Sorry. I just….I always thought that, you know, my first kiss was going to be something really special and that it'd be with someone special. Instead it was….uh". Dipper caught the look Pacifica was giving him and tensed up awkwardly. "Well, what I mean is, I'm not saying it _wasn't_ special or anything, but also I'm not saying if it was special or giving any definitely answer one way or the other, because who can really say for sure what I felt was, since it was with you of all people".

Dipper felt another invisible kick in his backside and continued on even more feverishly. "But-but I'm also not saying that I'd have a problem with it being with you or that I don't think you're special, because I do. I do think you're special, but just maybe not necessarily in that sort of way in this possible, 100% hypothetical, what-if kind of context that we're discussing but I guess that overall what I really meant to say was that it just wasn't what I had been expecting, but that didn't mean I didn't enjoy any less when it did happened and there is the itchiness again".

Dipper ended his inarticulate speech with an unceremonious monotone, giving up on any possible hope of avoiding embarrassment at this stage. Beside him Pacifica sighed heavily, seeing just how distressed he was truly feeling about the situation.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, alright?" she said sincerely, reaching out to touch his shoulder. "I'm sorry if I made you feel itchy or anything but I was just trying to keep you from getting into trouble with my parents. But like I said, this is only a big deal if we make it a big deal. Let's do what normal people would do in this situation and repress any weird emotions we might be feeling to the back of our minds and just to try to avoid thinking or talking about it to save effort"

"Maybe you're right" Dipper said, trying to sound more certain about it than he felt. "Maybe, we shouldn't think too much into it. I mean, it was just a spur of the moment kind of thing and let's face your family isn't a stranger to cover ups"

"So, repressed?" Pacifica asked Dipper with a smile.

"Repressed" he replied, smiling back. The limo pulled up to a stop in the middle of the town, prompting Dipper to open his door and step out on to the side walk.

"So, I'll see you around" he said, turning back and waving goodbye to Pacifica. "And sorry again, about that thing that didn't really happen"

"Uh, yeah, it's not a problem, since you know, it didn't happen" Pacifica said. The two them both started to laugh at the same time despite the obvious lack of humour in the air. Once they were done laughing, there came another long silence between them, which ended when Dipper finally closed the door of the limo behind him.

Dipper stepped back a few feet and watched as the limousine drove off around the corner. For a moment he stood alone on the sidewalk, not saying a word and taking in a nice, deep breath of the fresh summer air. He looked up at the sky, the weather still cloudy, blocking out the sunshine. As he stood there, he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of tranquillity fall over him, which made him feel quite at ease with himself and the world around him.

For about five seconds. Then…

"I KISSED A GIRL! I TOTALLY KISSED A GIRL! WHOO-HOOO!" Dipper literally started to bounce up and down in the air, waving his hands in the air, ecstatic beyond words. He took off in a run down the street, feeling like he might explode into a million pieces if stopped moving. He jumped forward, trying to do a somersault on his hands, only to end up smacking his face onto the pavement. But that wasn't enough to deter him. He was up and running again in no time, bounding and leaping his way through the street, all the while chanting the same thing.

"I kissed a girl! I kissed a girl! I kissed a girl! I KISSED A GIRRRLLLLL!"

Dipper finally ended his joyous romp by sliding down on his knee and thrusting his right arm out in a pointing gesture, like a rock star on centre stage. Standing right in front of his pointing finger was Sheriff Bulbs and Deputy Durland, both of whom had been causally enjoying a cup of coffee together, when they became the unintentional audience for Dipper's proclamation of his achievement

"Ohoh, hear that?" Bulb said, nudging Durland with his elbow. "City boy got himself a girlfriend"

Durland grinned back at his partner. "Yeah, she's a real beauty too. I can see her right now. Tall, blonde hair, bright green eyes. Oh and look, she's also giant robot laser arms, armed with homing missile launchers!"

"Better watch out!" Bulbs said. "Those things might end up hurting us…that is, if they weren't _imaginary_!" The two of them broke into a fit of hysterical laughter.

Dipper frowned indignantly as they continued to laugh at him. "She's not imaginary! I really did kiss a real girl today and-"

"Ah, ah, ah" Bulbs just raised up one finger to silence Dipper, before bending down and staring at him intently. "Here's how this is gonna work kid. You're gonna tell me the name of the girl you kissed and in the time it takes for you to say her name, I'm gonna take a nice, long, _deliberately_ slow sip of this steaming hot coffee, while standing within spit take range of Deputy Durland here. So tell me. Who was the girl you kissed?"

Bulbs straightened himself and began his _deliberately_ slow sip of his coffee, while Durland took up position in front of him, with a daredevil like expression on his face.

"You feeling lucky?" he said. "Well do ya punk?"

Dipper briefly opened his mouth to come up with a rebuttal, but then just caved into defeat as Bulbs finished his sip.

"Ahh!" he said, with supreme satisfaction. "You know, I always took it for granted, but a sip of coffee tastes a whole lot better when you don't have a surprise reaction that forces you to spit it in someone else's face. It's the simple things in life isn't it?"

"Maybe city boy here can go buy a cup of coffee for his _girlfriend_" Durland sniggered loudly. "And in case you misinterpreted that, I'm implying that we still think she's _imaginary!_"

Dipper rolled his eyes, growing more annoyed. Doing his best to ignore Bulbs and Durland as they kept making jokes, he walked off down the street. All the excitement he had felt a moment ago was now gone and he was now back to feeling an overwhelming amount of emotional confusion. He was so caught up how to decipher these new feelings that he didn't notice as Soos approached him.

"Oh hey there dude" he greeted. "You got whatever you needed to do done? Mabel's down at the library doing interviews for her potential dance partners and I figured you want to come and help her out, especially after you promised her that you would and it'd be pretty unfortunate if you were inconveniently side-tracked right now"

"What?" Dipper said absently, before realising that Soos was speaking to him. "Oh yeah sure. Mabel's thing. Let's go do that"

"What's up dude?" Soo said, taking note of Dipper's despondent disposition. "You look like you'd gone through some pretty emotionally impactful events since between now and the last time I saw you"

"Well…" Dipper rubbed his neck awkwardly, unsure whether or not he still wanted to talk about it. "Something really great happened to me today, but I can't really talk about it

"Hey, dude. You can tell me anything" Soos said. He got down on one knee and placed a hand on Dipper's shoulder, smiling as just cheerfully as he always did. "I am Soos, your personal diary, except in that I'm alive and made out of meat and hair. Probably could have used the word confidant instead, but hey, can't use an eraser on life"

Dipper stared up at Soos, feeling an odd sensation of both comfort and wariness, which was actually the usual feeling got off from Soos. Taking a deep breath, he decided that saying anything at this point couldn't make things any worse.

"Something really great happened to me today" he said to Soos. "And I was super happy about it, but then when I mentioned it, nobody believed me. They thought I was making it up"

"What did you do Dipper?" Soos asked

"I-I….I kissed a girl" he finally admitted, lowering his head down, half expecting another round of laughter, but was pleasantly surprised.

"Ah dude that's awesome!" Soos said. "You kissed a girl! Contrats!

"You believe me?" Dipper exclaimed, taken back.

"Well yeah" Soos said. "You said nobody else believed you, so that means it's got to be true"

"What?" Dipper said, confused.

"If a guy kisses a girl and he tells everyone, nobody ever believes him, which is the _real _proof that he did" Soos said. "Course on the other hand, you could just lie and say you kissed a girl, in which case if nobody believed you, then that would still kinda be proof too. It's sorta like throwing a witch off a cliff to see if she can fly type of logic. Pretty fickle in its inner mechanics. But hey, the important thing is that _you_ know it happened, so that's got to be worth something dude".

Soos pointed his finger in Dipper's chest and gave him an assuring smile, which ultimately went a long way in making Dipper feel a whole lot better about himself.

"Thanks Soos" he said gratefully. "I guess we better go Mabel before she has some big episode about not getting a partner in time. Oh and you know, don't tell about my, eh, you know…"

"Hey don't worry dude" Soos said smoothly. "Bro's before respectable and sophisticated young ladies"

* * *

After walking together for a few minutes, they eventually entered the Gravity Falls library, which stereotypically, was pretty quiet. Taking a stroll through the maze of book aisles, Dipper couldn't help but get a strange sense that something was different. He glanced up to the ceiling which seemed to be usually higher and across the rows of the book shelves which looked to be more numerous and spread out then they had been the last time he was here.

"Is it just me or is this place a lot bigger than from what I remember?(1)" he asked.

"Ohoh, dude, you have no idea how relived that makes me" Soos said. "Was feeling too awkward to say anything since we got here"

"So where is Mabel supposed to-AHH!" Dipper stopped right in his tracks just as he past in front of an aisle of book shelves and immediately threw his back up against nearest shelf, looking tense and fearful.

"What's the problem dude?" Soos asked, concerned. Dipper gestured for him to look around the corner. Curious, Soos poked his head around the corner of the shelf for a second and then pulled back again.

"Okay, now call me crazy here" he said carefully. "But isn't that Vincent standing down there?"

Dipper peaked his head around the corner to reaffirm what he had seen. Vincent was indeed down there, standing in the middle of the long aisle of books. The sign above indicated that he was in the history section of the library, as he picked a random book off the shelf in front of him.

"What's he doing here?" Soos asked, still behind Dipper. "Isn't it like, day time?"

Dipper, who had been wondering the exact same thing, already had an answer. "The clouds in the sky are blotting out the sun, so that means he can move around freely" he said. "But why is here? Is he looking for the last Journal?"

"Maybe he just wanted to check out some books?" Soo suggested. "So what's the proverbial skinny here dude? We gonna do something about him or act like we didn't see anything? I'd be good either way, but just throwing this out there, but Mabel's still kinda expecting us to come and help her"

"Mabel can wait for a little while" Dipper said, somewhat coldly, not taking his eyes off Vincent for a second. "I think I might have a finally found a way to trap Vincent this time. All we need now is the element of surprise"

* * *

Vincent telepathically lifted another book off the shelf, allowing it hover in front of him, along with half a dozen other opened books floating around him. Each book was constantly flipping through page after page, as Vincent briefly scanned each one's content, with none of them having what he was looking for. He finally stopped when one book caught his attention. It was opened up to a set of old, rural looking map drawings. Focusing his attention on this book, he flipped through another few pages to confirm his suspicion

"Hey Vincent!"

Startled by this noise, Vincent lost control the other books around him, which all fell to the floor with a clutter, though he manged to grab hold of the book he had been reading. Recovering himself, he turned his head down to the opposite end of the aisle, where he saw Dipper, standing right out in the open.

"You again?!" Vincent said angrily. Growly deeply into the back of his throat, he closed the book in his hands and then stowed it away inside his cape. "You are really started to get under my skin here. There is nothing more that I need from you, except for you to stay out if my way, so let me make this easy for you Dipper. I suggest you drop whatever stupid little idea you have in your head, walk away, and go find yourself a nice book to read"

"Look, I didn't come here to fight. I have a proposal for you, so just let me have five minutes of your time" Dipper said, raising his hands up wide to show that he meant no harm. "And if you don't like what I have to say, you're free to have my blood. Or to just let me leave unharmed. Please keep that one in mind"

Vincent said nothing and just crossed his arms coolly, already deciding that this was going to a big waste of his time. Arms still raised, Dipper slowly walked toward him while he continued to talk.

"I was thinking that maybe we could work together. You clearly know then secrets of Gravity Falls. Secrets that I've been trying all summer to crack, but I keep failing. I don't know what you're planning to do or what you want. I don't know what your connection to all this is, but maybe at this point I just don't care anymore. Whether it's good or bad, all I want is the truth. Just a straight, simple, concise answer to all of my million questions. Questions that you could answer for me. And in return, I think I'd be willing to stay out of your way"

When Dipper stopped walking, he was now face to face with Vincent. Very slowly, he lowered one hand and extended it out to him.

"What do you say?" he asked.

Vincent just stared blankly into Dipper's eyes, looking completely unconvinced by his plea.

"Do you really think I'm _that_ stupid?" he said dryly. "Let's walk through your plan here. You keep my attention focused on you this whole time, in this tunnel vison corridor of book shelfs. Meanwhile, you have either your sister or the fat guy slowly creeping up from behind me, ready to pounce while my back is still turned. My money is on the fat guy"

Vincent sharply turned around, striking a meaning pose, ready for whatever was waiting behind him. However his expectation fell short when he saw that the only thing behind him was an empty corridor and at the far end of it was Soos, eating a small sandwich.

"Oh hey" he chuckled, when he noticed Vincent looking him. "Bet you were like expecting me a lot closer to you huh dude?"

Taking his chance, Dipper quickly reached into his back pocket and pulled out the mangles he had taken from the Northwest Manor. Lunging forward, he clamped one end of the shackles onto Vincent's left wrist while his back was still turned.

"Hey!" he cried out in surprise. Dipper reached out to hit him with the second one, but was too slow, as Vincent managed to garb a hold of his arm. Pushing Dipper away from him, Vincent took a huge leap backwards, forcing the rest of the shackle to slip out of Dipper's hands. Once there was a safe distance between them, Vincent wrest at the shackle with his free hand, trying to pull it off his wrist, but found he was able to remove it.

"Where did you get this?!" he demanded

"Same place I got this!" Dipper reached behind his back once again, pulling out the second item he had recovered today. Charging forward, he raised up the sliver mace, taking a swing at Vincent who pulled his head back to dodge it. Ducking from another few swings, Vincent mentally flung several books of the nearest shelf at Dipper, knocking him back.

Unhurt, but momentarily stunned, Dipper soon recovered and was about to make another attack at Vincent, but paused when he noticed something strange happening to the mace. The metal ball had started to glow a slivery, white colour and at the same time, Dipper could feel the handle vibrating involuntary in his hands. The handle shook even harder until finally, like the blast from a small cannon, a sphere of white energy shot from the ball of the mace, striking at Vincent, who crossed his arms to shield himself at the last second.

The impact of the energy sphere forced him back, his feet digging up against the floor boards. Once stopped, his body appeared to be burning, as his clothes and skin were sizzling with smoke. Though a bit shaken, Vincent remained standing and accessed the damage done to his body.

"Essence of sliver?" he said, looking over his body, as his skin and clothes slowly began to regenerate.

"Uh, yeah! Exactly as I planned, as far as I'm going to tell anyone else" Dipper said.

Vincent snarled viscously. Lifting both his hands up, two nearby book shelves were levitated off the floor at his command and ready to be used. Unafraid, Dipper raised his mace up, which was ready to fire again. Moving perfect unison, the two of them charged at each other with a blood curdling battle cry as prepared to collide.

* * *

"Greetings! Now, I'm sure you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today" Mabel said. She was sitting behind a very small desk in the colourful children's section of the library, situated near the back area. Lined up out in front of her, on a set of tiny chairs, was an assortment of the local residents of Gravity Falls, ranging from the strange to the…...strange.

"I am prepared to make one of you a life changing offer. Today, one of you colourful and memorable characters will have the chance to become my dance partner for the annul dance contest that will be held later tonight!" Mabel paused for some dramatic effect, before closing her eyes and waving her hands smugly. "Now, now. No one get too violent. I'm sure you're all excited about the idea of having me as a dance partner, and you'll all get your chance. Except you Zac! I see you back there! Get out of here!" Mabel angrily pointed her finger at some unseen figure in the background, that didn't appear to be there.

"But of course, this isn't about me!" she continued. "It's about you. Somewhere among all of you, is the absolute most perfectly perfect person to be my dance partner. My dancing soul mate! Some people don't believe in a dancing soul mate, but it's real. As real a donut eating soul mate or a chiropractor-ing soul mate. You just have to keep on searching. And my search begins here"

Behind Mabel, a large book case was flung up through the air and smashed up against the nearby wall with a loud thud, but she appeared oblivious to this disturbance and simply resumed her interview.

"First up we have, Free Pizza Guy!"

A large, bearded man with a t-shirt that said free pizza, took his place in the seat in front of Mabel.

"Let's start off with some simple questions. Oh but wait". Mabel reached her hand under the table. "What is this mysterious thing that I have just discovered hidden underneath the table? Why it's a little something called….free pizza! Mmm". Mabel opened the box and took a deep inhale of the steam. "Just get a whiff of that cheese. But let's not get side tracked by potential food bribery. I'll just leave this here. Who knows, maybe my dancing soul mate will be someone who enjoys free pizza as much as I do?"

Mabel set the opened box down on the table in front of Free Pizza Guy, who glanced down at the piping hot pizza and then to Mabel, at a loss for words

"Are you saying me one dimensional?" he said in a soft voice.

"What?" Mabel said, confused

"You think I'm one dimensional, gimmicky and that my only place in life is standing somewhere in the background of a large crowd of unnamed people!?" he cried. "Because I'm not! You think my existence is defined solely by a love of pizza that I express through my t-shirt? I am not a t-shirt! I'm a human being! I can think, I can feel, I can love! I wear this t-shirt to be stand out, but not at the cost of my own identity!"

Without warning Free Pizza Guy suddenly burst into tears. Covering his face with his hands, he got up from his seat and ran off, sobbing loudly as he did. Mabel could only watch in silence as he went, slightly perturbed by what just happened. She closed the pizza box and just tossed it in a nearby bin. She didn't take noticed of the glowing spheres of sliver energy that were being fired random up into the air in the background.

"Okay" she said, picking up her list. "Next up we have Tats, the bouncer from outside the Skull Fracture"

"What up" he said in gruff voice, as he sat down.

"So Tats, tell me something" Mabel said. "Would you be interested in a performing a special choreographed duet with me?"

Tats shrugged indifferently. "I'm down with that. I got no problem with free expression. Be it dancing, music or through incredible painfully skin alterations"

"Really?" Mabel said, already sounding excited. "That's great. But before we sign off on anything just yet, I liked to get your approval on the outfits that we'll be wearing". Mabel handed him a silly little doodle of herself and an unknown person, marked as 'dancing soul mate', both of them wearing extravagant pink leotards.

"This is only a rough draft, since I'm thinking of throwing in a little bedazzle magic here and there, along with some-"

"Whoa, whoa. Hold up!" Tats said, outraged. "This ain't right. What the heck is this!? Pink? You expect me to go around in some little pink outfit? I want to wear mauve. It brings out the natural colour of my eyes, which are the only parts my body I could never tattoo. I demand a change in colour"

Although this wasn't exactly the response she had been expecting, Mabel seemed ready enough to deal with it. "Well, I think the outfits work in great pink and I'm not changing my mind" she said testily, crossing her arms, looking very resolute on the subject.

Tats slowly stood up from his tiny seat and dropped the drawing to the table.

"A dream can never be your dream if you share it with someone else" he said solemnly, walking away from the table. Mabel scowled slightly, beginning to grow more impatient. Her anger seemed to be highlighted when a set of explosions went off somewhere in the back of the library

"Okay fine" she said. "Next we have Mr Poolcheck

Mr Poolcheck,

"Tell me a bit about your life" Mabel asked

"Pool is suffering" he replied. "Therefore, pool is life"

"Right" Mabel said slowly. "But I'm curious if you could divert some of that unstable psycho energy you have boiling inside of you into dancing. Do you have anything experience with dance?"

Mr Poolcheck's face darkened for a moment as he narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "When I was a young man, I had very under developed legs. To counter this, I took five years in contemporary ballet. By the time I was twelve, legs muscles had grown so strong, I could crush a chestnut between the folds of my calves. After winning a number of trophies, I was on my way to the internationals grand championship in Switzerland, the land where nobody takes a side in conflict. It was in celebration of achievement that my parents decided to take me to the new swimming pool that had just opened up".

Mr Poolcheck then slowly started to chuckle, before bursting into a fit of insane laughter, momentarily freaking Mabel out until he calmed down again. "Oh what innocent fools we were back there. Five of us went into the pool that day. Only three came out. At first. The other two were caught in the pool nuzzles. We finally pulled them out, but when my father came out….".

For a moment, tears welled up his eyes, before he continued. "When my father came out, his ears were waterlogged! Medical science hadn't advanced enough for anyone to know how to get it out. He spent his remaining years, slightly deaf and constantly in a state of mild irritation from picking his ear to get the water out. I did that to him! So I took up a job as a life guard at the pool. I thought maybe if I could save people from falling into the same trap as he did, then maybe that would make it easier to live with my crushing guilt. But it never got any easier!"

Mabel said nothing and just stared at Mr Poolcheck as he continued his senseless screaming, while smashing his head down against the table. Without taking her eyes off him, she slowly crossed out his name on her list

"….Let's move on" she said.

The rest of the interviewees weren't much better. Next up was Old Man McGucket

"Question" he said. "During the contest, would I be allowed to use a flying, electro-magnetically powered disco ball that can release thousands of explosive spider robots to help liven up our performance and or to aggressively eliminate the competition?"

"Uh, no?" Mabel answered tentatively.

McGucket got up from his seat. "Then looks like we've both wasted each other's time"

Next, Cute Biker Tyler.

"Dancing? Sorry, but that's not really my thing. Don't want to give people the wrong impression, but I personally think dancing is for girls. Give me senseless and testosterone filled violence any day"

Next, Manly Dan.

"Just tell me where this dance floor is and I'll hit it so hard, it'll think twice before it decided to just be a metaphor"

Uh, next, Toby Determined.

"I already have a partner. My cardboard cut-out of Shandra Jimenez. She's a bit light on her feet, but I've been meaning to take our relationship out of the closet where I keep her locked up in"

Next…

"Shmebulock!"

And finally.

"Tad Strange would love to join you, but due to a very rare case of Maddison's disease which I was born with, I am chemically incapable of performing spontaneous movement or otherwise dramatic responses. Such is the curse of Tad Strange"

Mabel slammed her head down on the table with a weary groan. "I give up. There's nobody in this whole town that's my dancing soul mate. Not even my own brother" she moaned sadly. Standing from the table, she wandered into the library, desperately going over her list again. "There has to be someone that I didn't talk to"

"Oh Mabel there you are!" Soos ran up to Mabel, looking to be out of breath. "You won't believe what's happening"

"Soos, have you seen Dipper?" Mabel said, sounding annoyed. "He was supposed to come and help me find a dance partner"

"We were about to come and do that dude" Soos said quickly. "But then Dipper ran into Vincent and now they're having like a huge climactic battle in the middle of the library. It's like super crazy and really exciting to watch. You should have seen it. First Vincent was throwing a bunch of book cases at Dipper, but he manged to dodge them. Then Vincent summoned like a giant cyclops monster, but Dipper banished using a magic spell from his Journal. And then they-"

"Soos, I'm in the middle of dance-istential crisis here!" Mabel snapped. "I can't find anyone to be my dance partner and Dipper is off playing with his stupid vampire rival. My whole day is ruined now all because I can't find anyone who will be my-"

Mabel's voice was drowned out by the sound a huge explosion that erupted from the centre of the library. Before either she or Soos could react to what happened, a huge shockwave of light came crashing over them, knocking them to the floor.

* * *

Dipper tucked and rolled behind an overturned bookshelf as another wave of fire came over his head. Glancing up, he spotted Vincent a few feet away from him, holding a whistle craved into the shape of a dragon, a single plume of smoke coming out of the tip. Just as he inhaled to take another breath into the whistle, Dipper quickly grabbed a nearby book and flung it at his hand, knocking his whistle away.

Dipper then hopped over the shelf and charged at Vincent, although he had lost his mace, he was no less hesitant. Before he could get near him, Vincent clapped his two hands together. Two book cases on either side of the aisle, were pulled together and slammed into each other, with Dipper becoming the meat in the middle of the sandwich. When they pulled away, he was nowhere to be seen. Vincent cautiously moved forward, checking for any sign of him.

He found him again when Dipper, having climbed inside a vacant slot in the shelf to avoid getting crushed, jumped down from above and landed on Vincent from behind. Grappling onto him, Dipper grabbed the manacle chain, which was still flinging about wildly from Vincent's wrist. Dipper managed to get a hold of the open shackle and tried to lock it onto Vincent's other hand as he pulled away in resistance.

Unable to properly dislodge Dipper and determined not to get his other hand caught, Vincent levitated himself up into the air and began to spin around so fast that Dipper lost his grip, before flying off to the floor. Fortunately for Dipper, he landed right beside his mace, which he had dropped earlier. Grabbing the handle, the mace began to charge itself up with the same slivery energy as before.

Vincent lowered himself back to the floor, feeling slightly dizzy from his spinning. He barely had enough time to recover as Dipper ran up to him, preparing to bring the glowing mace right down on top of him. Reacting as fast as he could, Vincent reached in pulled out a small, round mirror from within his cape to block the attack. The mace struck at the glass mirror, which somehow reflected the energy of the strike, creating a powerful shockwave of light that resounding. Both Dipper and Vincent were flown in opposite directions through the air as the rest of the library shook from the force of the explosion they had created

After an uncertain about of time, Dipper opened his eyes with a heavy groan. Pushing himself up to his knees, his ears still ringing from the impact, he looking library and saw that he was now surrounded by a sea of books and paper, with just about every shelf in the library tumbled to the floor. Then he spotted Vincent, who was laying sprawled out among the books. Slowly, he pushed himself upright, looking just as haggard as Dipper from what had happened.

Seeing that the manacle was still around his left wrist, Vincent checked his right one but was relieved to see that it was still unbound by the other shackle

"Nice try Dipper, but like always you fail short of success". Vincent stood up and was about to take a step forward when he felt a sudden tug on his body. Glancing back down, he saw that the other end of the shackles were still buried underneath a large pile of books. The books started to rustle once again, as something rose out of it.

"Owowowowow!" Mabel moaned in pain. "Paper cut". She stuck her finger into her mouth and started to suckle on the tiny cut. She then noticed the strange metal shackle that was now firmly bound around her wrist. Her eyes focused on the shackle and followed down along the chain that was attached to it, until she was face to face with a very stunned looking Vincent.

Dipper stared at the sight in front of him, horror etched on every inch of his face. From behind him, Soos casually walked up and saw what that had happened.

"Oh dude, would this count as like a cliff-hanger moment? I'm definitely gonna put that down as a maybe"

* * *

** 1\. Yeah, have to admit, I kinda thought the library in Gravity falls is pretty small, so I just widen it out a bit just for the sake of this scene. I know it's lazy, but hopefully no one will mind too much.**

**So anyway. Yikes. Well Mabel got her partner, but they won't be going to any dances. Two things I hoped to highlight with his chapter. The first was that despite having kissed her, Dipper isn't just going to fall end over heels for Pacifica right away. A first kiss can be a pretty big deal and Dipper has to deal with a lot of mixed feelings as a result, which may or may not lead to something else.**

**The second was to show that Dipper is becoming more and more obsessed with catching Vincent, so much so he's beginning to neglect Mabel as a result.**

**And since, Mabel and Vincent will be spending some quality time together, she's going to have the chance to get to know him on a more personal level unlike Dipper. And Vincent is going to have to deal with someone who has a vastly different outlook on life to what he does, but at the same time he might be reminded of something he's been trying to forget**

**Anyway, hoped you liked the chapter. Getting close to a 100 reviews now, so again, I'll try to update within 1-2 weeks. Till then, goodbye and peace out**


	28. The Ol' Mabel and Chain

**Lennoxmacduffes**: Pretty sure he's actual backstory is too horrific for words

**coldblue**: When I think about how Dipper might react to kissing a girl for the first time ever, I can see him as being very excited, and very,_very_ awkward at the same time

For her own sake, it would a lot safer if she doesn't ask about it since it's kind of a touchy subject for him. So yeah, she's definitely going to do it

In this chapter, we'll see that there some other complication to them being chained up

Stan and Vincent definitely won't see each other for a while, least not in private. This partly for plot reasons, since Vincent believes that Stan is some kind of imposter, posing as Ford. He never knew Ford had a twin brother.

**Guest:** I don't really think I portrayed her as not caring about it at all. She doesn't care as much as Dipper would. I think Pacifica isn't really sure how to feel about it, but she's more content with trying to forget what happened. At least for the moment

**Dip the Hashashin**: Um, thank you?

**Sturm and Drang**: I think by now it's kinda apparent that killing Vincent isn't an easy to do. And this chapter will also explain why that's not an option

**XIII Blood:** Right now, there's probably going to be more story development. I don't want to just throw Pacifica into every adventure that the twins get into, otherwise it might feel too forced. That doesn't mean there will not be any more relationship building, but for now I've got the next few chapters already set in mind

* * *

"WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mabel was not taking her predicament well. Within the span of two seconds after she had realised what just happened, she immediately started screaming her head off in panic and was desperately trying to pull herself away from Vincent

"Get this thing off me!" she cried yanking at the chain holding them together. "Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!"

"I'm not the one who put this thing on!" Vincent grunted, in-between each of Mabel's tugs, struggling to keep himself from being pulled along by her.

"Okay, everyone clam down, just calm down!" Dipper said, though he sound as from calm as could be. "Don't panic. Give me a minute, I'll figure this out"

"Slow down dudes". Soos stepped out into the middle of the room, raising both hands high in the air like some kind of great, all-knowing savant. "Listen to the words of Soos and I may yet be able to undo this conundrum we find ourselves in. For situations such as these, the key to solving it, is often hindsight. Or just an actual key in general. Hehe. See what I did there? It's a pun. We all we need to do is use the key for those chains to get them off. And at the risk of making myself look bad here, I'm 100% certain that Dipper also has the key with him, don't you Dipper?"

Dipper said nothing in response to this, but words were unnecessary. His face cringed deeply, making him look painfully sick.

Soos' happy smile quickly dropped from his face. "Oh, the long awkward silence. Never a good thing. Okay, my second suggestion may seem a little more extreme, but bear with me. If you could live with only one hand, which one would it be?"

However, it looked as though Vincent had just about all he could stand of this situation. "I do not have time for this nonsense"

Grabbing Mabel by the arm, he pulled her closer to him and then flung his other hand in the air, which creating a gust of wind that blew up a storm of pages that enveloped them both. Reacting fast, Dipper ran head long into the whirlwind, but once the papers settled down again, he saw that his sister was now gone

"Mabel! What have I done?!" Dipper cried, grabbing his own hair. He bolted right for the nearest door. "This is all my fault! I got to find them and save-"

Dipper skidded to an abrupt halt when he saw that the only exit to the building was blocked off, by a very displeased looking librarian. Dipper tried to politely make his way around her, but she clearly was not going to budge. With piercing silence, she pointed over his head, to the direction of the thousands upon thousands of books, laying scattered across the floor.

"Oh, right" Dipper said, looking back and forth between the books and the librarian, chuckling nervously. "Uh, sorry about the mess, but the thing is, I need to go save my sister and quite possibly the entire world from this evil vampire, so I don't really have time to-"

The librarian snapped her fingers. At her command, two burly looking men with jackets that said librarian security appeared at her side. The librarian dropped a large book marked, Dewey Decimal System into Dipper's hands. He glanced up again to the guards who were glaring dangerously back at him, each one cracking their knuckles. Finding himself unable to think of a compelling counter argument, Dipper slowly trotted backwards to Soos, seeing as how it looked like neither of them were going anywhere anytime soon.

"Okay, so maybe we'll put all these books away first and then we go save Mabel" Dipper said. "I just hope she can hold out long enough for me to find her"

* * *

"Put me down, put me down, put me down!" Mabel screamed, slapping her hands at Vincent as they descended toward the ground.

"Gladly" Vincent muttered. Once they were close enough he let go of her, though she didn't have far to fall, since the length of the chain between them was only about two or three. Mabel landed flat on the ground first, with Vincent lowering himself beside her. She quickly jumped back to her feet and turned to face Vincent, striking a kung fu like pose.

"Stay away from my neck you over grown mosquito!" she said defiantly. "I won't go down without a fight. So bring it on sucker. You want some of this? What're you going to do me huh? Eat me? Drink my blood? Hypnotise into your own personal sleeper agent, activated by some special code phrase that turns me to a deadly assassin? Well, you better watch out, because soon my brother will find us and together, we'll kick your butt". Mabel cupped her hands around her mouth and raised her voice throughout the woods.

"Ca-caw! Ca-caw! Ca-caw! Arh-whooooooo! Soowee! Soowee!"

Vincent said nothing and just listened to Mabel as she performed an extensive imitation of a menagerie of various barn yard animals, followed by what sounded like a beached whale with a case of laryngitis. Finally losing his patience, he yelled as loud as he could over her noises. "_What_ are you doing?!"

"Signalling for help" she answered, unabashed. "Ca-caw! Ooooo-wrah! Ooooo-wrah!"

"We are at least three mile away from the library" Vincent said, rubbing his eyes, supressing the urge to rip his own ears off. "Your brother can't hear you out here. Which is something I greatly envy right now"

"That's what you think!" Mabel said triumphantly. "But I'll have you know, Dipper and I share a secret a telepathic mind link, so that I call him wherever I am". Closing her eyes, she placed the tips of her fingers to her left and right temples and started to rub them, while chanting in a very ethereal like tone, reminiscent of a fortune teller.

"Mabel calling Dipper, Mabel calling Dipper, Mabel calling Dipper"

Vincent sighed in pure aggravation, coupled with a roll of his eyes. Getting down to one knee, he turned his attention to the shackle around his wrist, beginning to take a closer examination of the restraint as he tapped his finger against the metal, while at the same time, doing his absolute best to ignore Mabel who was still trying to make mental contact with Dipper.

"Mabel calling Dipper, Mabel calling Dipper. We are out in the woods, out the woods. Come rescue me, come rescue me. Also bring some snacks. Some snacks. Preferably some salty pretzel, I'm kinda in the mood. Or maybe a burrito. Either way is fine. You know want, scratch that, I've been watching my figure lately, so maybe just some low fat fudge bars and a diet soda. Oh, and asks Soos if he wants something too because you _know_ how he gets when it comes to-"

Mabel was abruptly brought out of her one sided conversation when she felt a sharp tug on her arm, which pulled her down to the ground beside Vincent. He roughly grabbed a hold of her shackled wrist and pulled it in closer.

"Hey!" she said, indignantly

"Will you _please_ be quiet for just one second while I try and figure out how to get this thing off us?" he snapped at her impatiently. He looked over her shackle in silence for several long moments, before speaking once more.

"This is definitely Abendroth work. I've read about these types of markings in my studies. They're supposed to be like a kind of conduit that can siphon off the strength and life force of whoever they hold, but only if both ends are placed on the captive's hands. So I can still use all my power, but the downside is they are incredible difficult to remove, almost impossible. I'll have to research a way to get them off later, but for the time being, it looks like you'll be coming along with me"

"No way am I helping _you_!" Mabel exclaimed, standing up from him. "You're evil and dumb, and you tried to hurt my family like a bazillion times since the day I met you! I'll never help in you a million years, I'll-

Vincent silenced her by grabbing her right hand once again and drawing himself up in full height, towering over her with an imposing presence.

"Listen up, little girl" he said in a clear and menacing voice. "Until I get this off, we're stuck together, but I'm the one who's going to running this little puppet show. So here's how this works. When I say jump, you say-

Mabel didn't give Vincent a chance to finish his threat because in the very next second, she socked him square in the face with a solid left hook, catching him completely off guard and forcing him to release her as all his previous mystique quickly evaporated.

"OW!" Vincent cried, clasping the bridge of his nose in pain.

"OW!" Mabel cried almost simultaneous, clasping the bridge of her own nose. "That hurt! What'd you do to me?"

"To you!?" Vincent growled in outrage, still holding his own nose. "You're the one who hit me!"

"So why does my nose hurt too?" Mabel said.

Vincent looked just as surprised by this revelation as Mabel did herself. Glancing down, he took another moment to examine the shackle around his wrist more carefully, as a thought slowly creeped into his mind. Deciding to test his theory, he cautiously reached up to his cheek and pinched hard at it. Mabel exclaimed once again, grabbing her own corresponding cheek. Starting to get the picture herself, Mabel grabbed a lock of her of own hair and pulled hard at it, which in turn caused Vincent to flinch and reach for his head.

"What's going on?" Mabel asked, sounding worried.

"It's the manacles" Vincent answered. "They can drain life force energy between the two ends, but somehow they've linked the two of us together, bonding our life forces. So now we feel what the other feels"

"Meaning that if one of us kicks the bucket…" Mabel trailed off, already assuming the worst.

"Oh that's just great!" Vincent said throwing his arms up the air with sarcastic anger. "Just what I needed today. I got up this morning to do one thing. To try to pick up a simple book. Then I run into your idiot brother who put this chain on me and now I'm stuck here, walking around with my heart on my sleeve for somebody to put a steak through it. That's not even a metaphor for this situation! I'm literally carrying a huge vulnerability by the end of my sleeve".

"You want to complain?" Mabel said, sounding offended. "My whole day is ruined thanks to you! I was all set to be in this big, super fun dance off contest later tonight, but you come in and drag me off into the middle of the woods. Because of you I'm gonna miss my chance to dance with everybody else in town. The least you could do is apologize"

Vincent slowly turned to Mabel, blinking a couple of times, looking so close to disbelief that it was dumbfounding.

"Really?" he said, with an incredulous smile. "A dance contest? Wow. Just wow. That's what you're upset over? You know, let's just hope you never end up having to deal with _real_ problems later in life". His expression hardened bitterly. "Trust me when I say this, but at some point in your life, missing a stupid little dance contest will be the last thing you'll have to be upset over"

Mabel looked as though she wasn't too concerned for Vincent's warning. She crossed her arms and just tuned her head up to the trees. "So what are we doing now?" she finally asked.

"Now, we're moving out" Vincent answered. "We're not too far from where I need to go, so we'll just fly up and-"

"I'm not flying with you again!" Mabel said. "Try it and I'll take the opportunity to practice my bird mating call. Ca-caw-"

"Please _don't_!" Vincent hissed. "Fine we'll walk"

"Fine by me. Let's go and-oh no!" Mabel calmly laid down the ground perfectly flat, her body rigidly straight. "I have spontaneously lost the use of my spine and can no longer move the lower half of my body" she said in monotone.

Feeling very frustrated, yet still determined, Vincent picked up his end of the chain and slowly started to trudge forward through the woods, dragging Mabel's unmoving body along behind him, like a human toboggan.


	29. Home Sweat Home

**NickStricker**: Prepare to feel worse

**coldblue:** I don't really see a reason as to why Vincent would kiss Mabel, if it was just to mess with Dipper. Vincent is pretty practical and pragmatic. He does whatever he thinks will benefit him the most and get him closer to his overall goal. He definitely doesn't like Dipper but I'm sure if he wanted to do something bad to him, it would probably just be finding a way of keeping him from intervening in general since he views him as a theart. Annoying him isn't as valuable as stopping him

**Dip the Hashashin:** Yeah, I wanted the problem to be more complicated that what it initially seemed. And I thought I should make the hand cuffs power to sound both science/magic

**Lennoxmacduffes:** Thank you none the less. And btw, really like your own story

**Guest:** Ah come on. She's not that lovable

* * *

After walking for about half an hour through the woods, Vincent, while not taking special care to avoid any dirt, branches or mud in his path for the sake of Mabel, finally stopped when they had reached their destination. Realising that they had stopped moving, Mabel got back to her feet again.

"Are we there yet?" she asked, shaking some branches out of her hair. She was about to ask a follow up question about where they were, but soon got her answer when her eyes focused on what was up ahead. They were standing in front of a familiar looking old gate that had been tumbled to the ground and preceding it was a large, burned down manor that Mabel had visited not too long ago with Dipper.

"My old home" Vincent said, gazing over the desolate building. "It's been…quite a while since I was here. There's something I need that's inside. I can't move forward with my plans until I get it, which means I have to…go back in there". For some reason, his voice carried something that sounded close to reluctance.

There then came a long moment of silence as they both stood in front of the gate. Mabel was waiting expectantly for Vincent to say or do something else before he took her inside the mansion, but he made no move in any direction, as if waiting for something else to happen. After nearly five minutes of just standing around, Mabel rubbed the back of head, genuinely beginning to feel a little awkward about the situation.

"Um, are we… going in yet?" she asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes, of course we are" Vincent said a little sharply, as if the question itself was irrelevant. Despite having said that, he made no move to go forward and just remained where he was. After another minute of silence, Mabel spoke up again.

"Are we going in_ now_?" she asked.

"Yes, in a minute" Vincent replied impatiently. But once again, nothing else happened.

"How about now?" Mabel asked.

"Not yet"

"Now?"

"I said not yet!"

"Nooooow?"

"We'll go in when I say we go in!"

"Can't we just go in already?" Mabel asked, growing increasingly restless from their perpetual waiting. "If what you want that's so important, then why are you wasting time out here?"

Vincent opened his mouth slightly and gestured with his hands, as if he wasn't sure how to phrase his answer. "I'm just, um….just…just collecting myself a little. And you…you keep throwing me off with all your incessant distractions".

Mabel didn't take his comment too well. She was about to give him a sharp reply, but it was then she noticed how apprehensive Vincent actually looked and realised that he had been staring at the old building since they arrived, not even looking over in her direction the whole time. It was then that another thought slowly occurred to Mabel

"You're not _scared_ to go in there are you?" she asked with a wryly grin.

Vincent became visibly unnerved by her accusation, but did his best to mask any anxiety. "Scared? Me? Ha, please. I am a vampire. We are fear itself" he said, with an egotistical flair of pride. "I'm just, you know….um, catching the breeze a little and enjoying the day"

"You are scared aren't you?" Mabel said, growing more amused by the second, poking Vincent in his arm. "Scared, scared, scared!"

"I'm not afraid!" he said angrily, swatting her hand away from him.

"The why don't you want to go into your old house?" Vincent gave no response to this question, which Mabel decided to take as positive incentive.

"Tell me, do you prefer to be called a chicken or a fraidy cat?" she asked him. "I'm gonna say chicken"

"I'm not a chicken!" Vincent snapped.

"Buk, buk, brrr-awk!" Mabel taunted.

"If you think that's going to get to me, you're-"

"Brr-awk!"

"Stop that!"

"Fine" Mabel said innocently. "Fraidy cat it is. Meowmeowmeowmeow"

"Will you please just-"

"Meowmeowmeow!"

Vincent crunched his face up with frustration. "Enough already!"

With a renewed sense of resolve in his stride, Vincent marched forward, yanking at the shackle on his wrist to pull Mabel along. They crossed the courtyard of the manor, walking past the fountain and up the front steps without breaking their pace. However, once they reached the front door, Vincent paused for a moment, looking uncompromisingly nervous as he stared up at the wooden frame in front of him. With a slight gulp, he placed his hand on the door and slowly started to push it open.

"Dramatic entrance!" Mabel shoved her hands into Vincent's back forcing them both to tumble right through the door.

"What'd you do that for?" he demanded.

Mabel just smiled and shrugged back at him. "When someone's scared of something, the best thing to do is forcefully thrust them face first into whatever their afraid of so they'll overcome it, and hopefully not have a nervous breakdown"

Vincent rolled his eyes once again with disgust. "Thanks for the advice, but like I said before, I'm not scared"

There seemed to be some more truth in his statement this time round, as now that they were finally inside the house, he's anxiety issues appeared to have satiated somewhat. He took the led forward, with Mabel walking behind him as they made their way the interior of the house. They abruptly stopped when they came to a large hole in the floor in front of them that extended far down below.

"This is new" Vincent said, craning his neck out over the pit.

"That's the hole me and Dipper fell into last time we were here" Mabel said. "And then we landed into that evil secrety underground lair place"

"Well what a coincidence" Vincent said. "Because that's where I need to go. So spare me your pitiful screaming when I-"

"Pocahontas!"

Without warning, Mabel leaped right off the edge of the hole, laughing in merriment as she plummeted downwards, with the weight of her body acting like an anchor that dragged Vincent right along with her. Just before they hit the approaching ground, Vincent caught himself in the air, stopping his own momentum from the fall which was also brought Mabel to a halt, her feet just inches above the floor below them as she dangled from the chain between them.

"What's wrong with you?! " Vincent snapped as he lower them both down. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"Noooo!" Mabel drawled. "I knew you were going to catch me. I break my neck, you break yours, meaning I can take unnecessary and thrill seeking risks anytime I want and _you_ have to cover for me"

Vincent scowled at Mabel, feeling greatly aggravated, by both her teasing and the fact she actually made a valid point. Taking his mind off her for a moment, he soon focused his attention on the underground chamber they had landed in. His eyes settled on the huge shelf at the far wall, filled with numerous books and scrolls.

With nothing but a thought in his mind, he removed some of the scrolls from the shelf and held them up over his head. Vincent then turned toward the old workbench at the other end of the chamber, which was lined with broken and empty glass vials, as well as ones that were still partial full of some strange and unknown liquids. He and Mabel walked over to the bench with the scrolls following behind them in the air.

Clearing a large enough space, Vincent placed the scrolls down on the bench and took a seat on the stool in front of it. He then reached into his cape and pulled out the book he had taken from the library, before setting it on the bench as well. Finally, he reached into the pocket of his pants, taking out a small folded up piece of paper

Holding the paper in between his hands, Vincent threw a cautionary glance over to Mabel, who was staring up at celling with an idle expression, while picking at strands of her hair. He didn't like the idea of her being present while he did his work, but for the moment he could see no other alternative.

He unfolded the secret map he had spent so long trying to find and spread it out across the bench. He then opened up one of the scrolls, along with his book and with all the appropriated pieces arranged together, he diligently began to analyse the information laid out before him.

"Whatcha' reading?" Mabel asked, poking her head over his shoulder.

Vincent eyed her coldly, before shifting his shoulders up to obscure her view. "The same thing everybody else in the world reads. Letters"

"But you're also looking at pictures too" Mabel said, moving to his other shoulder and standing on her toes. "Is that a map?"

"_That _is none of your business" Vincent said in a low voice, changing his position once again to block her, but Mabel was unrelenting. Unable to see over his shoulder, she quickly tucked underneath his arm and popped out between him and the desk, getting a full view of what he was looking at.

"What's an…. Under-land-tis?" Mabel asked, squinting her eyes to make sure she was reading that right.

"It's another word for Axolotl" Vincent answered swiftly, placing his palm over Mabel's face and pushing her away. "Now stop interrupting me. I found what I was looking for at the library, but now I need to cross check it with some of my grandfather's old scrolls. And once I get through all this, I'm going to try and look for a way to get these shackles off us, so stop pestering me"

Mabel pouted in annoyance and crossed her arms. Not being able to wander off by herself, she slumped her back up against the side of bench, beginning to feel a great sense of boredom wash over her. Trying very hard to think of some way to alleviate it, she sighed heavily and leaned her head down on bench. And it was then that something in front of her caught her eye. Straightening herself up, she glanced over to Vincent, who was completely absorbed into his own work, and she quickly got a great (and definitely not stupid) idea in her head.

Still reading and paying no mind to anything else, Vincent absently moved his left hand to the side to pick up another scroll, but to his surprise, his hand grasped nothing but empty space. He turned his head in confusion to see that all the scrolls he placed on the bench were now gone. He then heard a loud moaning noise coming from behind

"What the?" he said, turning around.

Mabel was now covered from head to toe with several layers of dry, brown paper, which were wrapped haphazardly around her head, arms and torso, giving her the appearance of a burn ward patient.

"Behold! I am the living mummy!" she said hauntingly, sticking her arms out straight while waving them up and down rigidly. "Fear me or I will eat your brains because I'm basically the same thing as a zombie, but with toilet paper arms! Bewarb! Bewarb!"

"Stop that!" Vincent angrily grabbed a handful of the papers and yanked them off Mabel's body. The papers slide off without effort since she hadn't done a good job of securing them. Scowling deeply, Vincent scooped the bundle of scrolls off the floor and dropped them back on the bench

"Don't touch anything!" he snapped at Mabel as he began to unjumble the mess she had created. "These are delicate scrolls that contain secret knowledge so ancient and deadly they could bring untold destruction upon the world in the wrong hands"

"But in the hands of someone artistically gifted like myself, they can also be used for origami!" Mabel picked up a scrap of paper off the floor and quickly folded it into an undiscernible shape. She held it up for Vincent to see. "Now I know what you're thinking. And you right. It _does_ look exactly look a cat!"

Vincent snatched the paper, er, _cat _out of Mabel's hands and smoothed it back out on the table. "I am trying to focus here" he said, rubbing his eyes with frustration. "The longer you waste my time, the longer we're going to be stuck together, so stop messing around!"

Mabel responded by sticking her tongue out at him. After another few moments she spoke up again. "I'm hungry" she moaned, beginning to feel a grumbling in her stomach. "And thirsty"

"Oh really?" Vincent said dryly, opening another scroll. "Well give me a minute and I'll serve you up a nice plate of Not-My-Problem, along with a tall, cool glass of Tell-Someone-Who-Cares, and afterwards I'll make you my special, Shut-up-and-Let-Me-Work-In-Peace cheese cake for desert. Might smell a little condescending, but you'll _figuratively _die when you taste that rich flavour of pure, organic sarcasm"

Mabel said nothing and just stared back at Vincent with a deadpan expression, her eyelids half lowered. She then slowly started to clap her hands in a mocking gesture. "Bravo sir, bravo. You're right. I _can_ taste the sarcasm". Mabel gave a brief glance to her side. "So maybe, I'll just wash it down with whatever this is!"

Mabel reached out and grabbed one of the unbroken vials that was still on the bench. At the bottom of it was a small of amount of some strange green liquid.

Vincent looked over to Mabel with a lazy expression, which quickly melted into fear and alarm once he saw what she had picked up. "N-n-no, no, don't drink that!" he said, jumping off his stool and making a move toward her. He tried to grab the vial out of her hands but she pull it back from him.

"You drink that and you'll kill use both!" he exclaimed, growing more flustered. "That stuff will eat through your organs like a school of piranha and then it'll make your eyes balls violently implode inside your head, which means it'll eat through _my_ organs like a school of piranha and make _my_ eye balls violently implode inside my head! Give it to me now!"

"Oh really? Well if that's the case, then I'll gladly sacrifice myself no matter how excruciating painful it's going to be, if means stopping you and your evil plans!" Mabel declared. Without hesitation, she arched her neck backwards and tipped the vial over her mouth, guzzling down its contents. As soon as she finished, she let out a raspy gasp, dropping the vial to the floor. She clutched her own throat as if choking, her body shaking and her eyes rolling into the back of her head

"No, no!" Vincent put his hands to his own throat in panic and started to gasp for breath, dropping down to his knees, already feeling the effects of the poison running its course through his own body.

Mabel continued hyperventilating, looking to be on the verge of losing her ability to breathe entirely. Then in an instant, she completely froze up, taking in one very long, last inhale of oxygen, before finally….

"Blaaahhhhhh!" she exclaimed loudly, a goofy smile crossing over her face. Vincent, while still on his knees, stared back at her, his mind suddenly going blank. Seeing his face, Mabel soon burst into a fit of laughter.

"Haha, fooled you!" she giggled. "I would never drink that weird stuff. Watch this"

Mabel picked up another glass vial and tipped over her mouth. However from this angle, Vincent could now see that Mabel's head had been in the foreground, the glass aligned up with her mouth in the background to create the optical illusion of her actually drinking the substance in the vial. Vincent gaped incredulously at her at as she started laughing once again. His pride had been wounded enough by her little stunt, but what really drove the nail into him was that Mabel wasn't laughing out of mockery or contempt, or that she was even laughing _at_ him. She was laughing simply because she thought the situation was genuinely funny.

"Yeah, depth perception is pretty powerful thing huh?" Mabel said, once she recomposed herself. "One time I managed to eat a whole sun with that trick!"

Vincent looked to be on the verge of saying something back to her, but no audible sound came out of his mouth. His left eye began to twitch violently, as if he was in the middle of a seizure. With his hands shaking in barely restrained rage, he dug his fingers into the skin underneath his eyes and pulled at it, stifling a deep groan. He then took a very long, slow breath to steady himself. Closing his eyes, he calmly, yet stiffly stood up and moved back to the workbench, picking up where he had left off.

"Oh come on" Mabel said, following after him (not that she had any other choice). She took up position right beside him, drawing so close her shoulder pressed up against his.

"Don't tell me you're gonna be all sore about that" she said, playfully jabbing him slightly in the elbow. "I understand how tricking someone into thinking they're in life threating danger just for the fun can sometimes be taken the wrong way, but I was only trying to lighten the mood. If it makes you feel any better, I played that same trick on Dipper the last time we were here, when we fell down that big hole." Mabel leaned in closer, dropping her voice down to whisper. "He totally fell for it"

Vincent said absolutely nothing back to her, keeping his eyes glued to his papers, doing his best to pretend that Mabel didn't exist, but her persistently amicable attitude was hard to blot out.

"So what is the deal with this place?" she asked him casually, looking around the chamber with sudden interest. "Why would you want to live in a place like this? Did you live here with your grandpa? Dipper said that this was his old house"

Vincent flipped through another piece of paper, remaining completely silent.

"Did your parents live here too?" Mabel asked him. "Or did they send you here to stay with your grandpa for the summer, like me and Dipper did with Grunkle Stan?"

There came a loud tear as Vincent had inadvertently pulled a little too hard on a scroll he was holding, ripping in half.

"Dipper and I haven't seen our parents since we left home this summer" Mabel continued. "I wonder how they're doing. To be honest, except for their arms I don't really remember what they look like. But it's been really great living with Grunkle Stan this past while". For a moment, Mabel smiled warmly as she began to reminisce.

"Ah, I remember the first day we came here" she said, almost dreamily. "That was when I experienced my first summer romance". Her face suddenly grimaced in an expression of dread. "Too bad it turned out to be with a bunch of gnomes that tried to kidnapped me and make me their queen, but what's life without a little heart ache?"

Vincent lowered his head down further, breathing in hard through his nose and rubbing the right side of his temple, still making no attempt to engage with Mabel's small talk

"I remember that day, because I was wearing my 'Meow Wow' sweater" she said. "I make sure to wear a different sweater each day. That way, no matter what happens, no twos days of my summer will ever be exactly the same. Hey! You know what I just remembered? This was also where I found that really cool black sweater. You know? The one with the little red bats on it?"

Vincent's eyes snapped open like a whip being cracked, his whole body going very tense. He dropped the papers he had been holding, before hunching over and laying his hands flat on the table.

"You wouldn't happen to have another one laying around would you?" Mabel asked with tentatively, oblivious to Vincent's less than forthcoming demeanour. "In case you didn't notice, I'm sort of a sweater connoisseur and I gotta tell you that was one fashionable piece of wool you had there and believe me, I've worn a lot. But I never had one in black before. Do you have another? Maybe we could work out a trade or-"

There came the sound of splintering wood as Vincent sank his entire fingers into the top of the solid bench as easily as if it was made out of soft clay. Pulling his hands free with a loud snap, he rounded right on to Mabel like wild animal gone savage.

"Will you just **SHUT UP!**" he roared with fury right into her face, forcing her to back away from him almost immediately. "Can you go even five seconds without opening your mouth and acting like a complete and utter moron!? How many other ways can I phrase it? I…am….trying…to…**WORK!**"

Mabel continued to back track from Vincent with utmost terror as he bore down on her menacingly, poking his finger into her chest with each of his enunciations. "Don't talk to me, don't distract me, don't play games with me, don't even look at me! And don't you ever, _**ever**_ ask me about sweaters again! Or I swear, I'm gonna-!"

Whatever Vincent was going to do, Mabel never found out, because just before he could finished his anecdote, she felt the back of her knees hit against something hard, making her lose balance and fall straight backwards. As she tumbled, Vincent was involuntarily dragged forward by the chain that bound the two of them together, crashing head first to the floor.

Hitting the floor hard, Mabel shook her head, feeling disoriented. Sitting up right, she saw that the thing she had tripped over was a large, grime covered cinder block, laid out in the middle of the floor. This was the first thing she noticed. The second thing she noticed was what had happened to Vincent during the scuffle. When they had fallen over together, while Mabel had vaulted right over the cinder block, Vincent landed on the opposite side, having been pulled straight downward due to Mabel's fall, and as a result, he smacked his face right off the top of solid stone block. Mabel winced, knowing for a fact it hurt him a lot. Because it had hurt her a lot.

With a stiff groan, Vincent pushed himself up, his face covered by his hands. When he lowered them again, he opened his eyes onto the concrete block sitting between him and Mabel, their chain laying over the top of it. He stared into the grey stone, as if it was some kind of long lost acquaintance that he was meeting for the first time in years.

Very slowly, Vincent blinked once. Then again. And then…

"AAAAARRRRHHHHHHHHH!"

The cinder block rose at least ten feet in the air as Vincent extended a claw like hand toward, his eyes burning with crimson energy. He then clenched his hand into a tight ball. A thousand tiny fissures appeared on every corner of the block, cracking the exterior. In the span of only one second, the entire block shattered, collapsing on itself, being crushed into pieces. But things didn't stop there. The broken pieces continued crackle as they were further compressed together, tighter and tighter, shrinking down to a tiny ball of dust. The ball hovered down in front of Vincent, who was still clenching his fist as tightly as he could, every ounce of his concentration focused on crushing the block into as tiny a fragment as he possibly could. Finally he released the breath he had been holding in and open his hand again, letting what was left of the block drop to the floor as a fine powder of dust.

Vincent looked down at the pile of the dust, eyes wide and breathing heavily as if he had just run a marathon. Standing across from him, Mabel could only stared apprehensively at him, half wondering if he would turn his anger on her next. Unable to bare the silence any longer, she wet her lips slightly, aware that she could very well have been tempting death.

"Whoa! Is it tense in here, or is it just your lack of prescribed medication" she said with a cheerful smile.

Vincent slowly turned his head and cast one dark glare of his eyes in Mabel's direction. Her smile instantly dropped from her face and she soon fell silent. Without uttering a word, Vincent turned on his heel and marched back to the bench, quite literally dragging Mabel with the force of his tug.

"I've got enough information here" he said curtly, picking up a handful of papers and stuffing them inside his cape. He took a moment to fold one piece of paper and carefully place inside his pocket. "We're going out again"

Vincent pulled Mabel along back to the hole in the ceiling, ready to leave again, but stopped when he noticed how the floor underneath the hole suddenly looked a lot brighter than before. Turning his head upwards, he saw a ray of sunlight shining down the hole in the floor above them from the large gap in the collapsed roof up above

"Dammit" Vincent cursed under his breath. "The sun is out again and it'll be hours before nightfall. That means we'll have to wait the rest of the day out in here" he concluded, sounding very bitter about the prospect.

"While that doesn't sound too bad?" Mabel said trying to stay optimistic. "I'm sure we can entertain ourselves till then. What to watch me make some shadow puppets?"

As soon as Mabel stuck her hand out into the sunlight, she pulled it back again into the shadows with a yelp. Looking at her hand, she saw that it had turned bright red, as if a cup of boiling water had been splashed over her flesh.

"Looks like you've also gained my weakness to sunlight" Vincent said, noting the burning sensation on his own hand

"So now I can't even go out in the sun shine?" Mabel said with despair. "You're supposed to have _fun_ in the _sun_. Do you know how few words there are that rhyme with fun!? Do you?!" she exclaimed, grabbing Vincent by the helm of his collar in a desperate plea. Unsympathetic, Vincent detached her hands from his collar and then started toward another end of the chamber.

"Where are we going now?" Mabel asked as she was forced to follow him.

"Somewhere I can think" he answered.

* * *

Vincent led Mabel back upstairs through a hidden stair case. They moved through the dilapidated mansion, being careful to avoid any patches of sunlight seeping in. They finally came to an unmarked door in less damage section of the house. Together, they entered into a relatively smaller, room, which held a single bed against the far wall.

"My old room" Vincent said, with a weary sigh.

"This is where you slept?" Mabel asked, looking over the bare room, that was around the same size as the room she and Dipper slept in. But unlike their room, this one was almost completely empty, save for the bed and the small shelf beside it. There wasn't even a window on the wall.

"This part of the house is still pretty much intact" Vincent explained. From his pocket, he pulled out his phone and set the alarm on it. He took out a small candle and lit it, placing it on the shelf beside the bed in order to bring some light into the room. "Once it's dark again, we can leave"

"What are supposed to do till then" Mabel asked.

"I am going to figure out to remove these restraints" he answered, pulling another book out from the two dimensional fabric of his cape. He then plopped himself up onto his old, creaky bed and opened his book.

"Do you do anything other than study?" Mabel said, sounding exasperated.

"What else is there to do?" Vincent replied lazily, as if he found the actual question pointless.

"I don't know". Mabel shrugged. She gestured around toward the empty room. "Maybe if you had something in here that you could play with, like some toys or board games or colouring books. Or maybe your own mini golf course

Vincent paused while turning the page of his book. He lowered the book and rubbed his eyes wearily. "I'm sorry, but what?" he said, almost certain that he had not heard Mabel correctly.

"A miniature golf course" Mabel reiterated with a happy smile. "With some glue, tape and little imaginative plagiarism, you make your very own mini golf course right here in your bedroom. Me and Dipper make them all the time. If you want I can show you how make one too and we can have a round of golf to pass the time. We could start by-"

"You know what, I have a better idea" Vincent said, putting on a convincingly fake smile. "Why don't we play a different game? Let's see who can stay as quiet as possible the longest while collecting the most dust". Vincent then scraped up a handful of dust off his bed shelf into the palm of his hand and then blew it right into Mabel's face. "Look, your winning" he added coldly, as he went back to his reading.

Mabel shut her eyes as she felt the dust particles spray all over her face. Coughing slightly, she blinked a few times before wiping her face clean with the sleeve of her sweater. When she saw that Vincent was still just reading his book, not looking the least bit sorry for what he had just done, her face slowly furrowed into a very unamused frown.

"You know, it's not _my_ fault that we're chained up together" she said, her tone resentful. "And I didn't ask to be stuck inside this tiny little room with you all day when I could be outside playing in the sun. I'm only trying to make the most of this bad situation, but you have to keep being such a jerk all the time. Why don't you lighten up a little?"

"What and be like you?" Vincent scoffed. He hopped off the bed to stand opposite Mabel. "You treat everything like its one big joke. Playing stupid little games with yourself and everything you can get your hands on. And why? For what point? What can you possible hope to achieve out of such childish antics?"

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to have some fun" Mabel said defensively.

"Fun is worthless! Vincent snapped, suddenly angry. "Fun gets you nothing and nowhere in life. Hard work, absolute focus and total commitment are the only things that do that"

"Jeez, now you sound like my brother" Mabel muttered, with a slight eye roll

"Except your brother is a loser" Vincent sneered coldly.

"Hey! Don't talk about him that way!" Mabel said, her anger flaring. "We kicked your butt before and pretty soon, he's gonna show up to rescue me and then we'll stop…. whatever it is your doing!"

"I'm not scared of your brother" Vincent said, his voice hard as he drew closer to Mabel, meeting her angry gaze with his own. "I'm not scared of anything! I have great things planned for my future. A future where I'm working toward something, something worthwhile. I work for it every single day, with everything that I do and I overcome any problems or obstacles that get in my way. But you?" His voice now dropped to a mocking tone. "Your idea of an obstacle is figuring what stupid little sweater you want to wear at some ridiculous dance off, where maybe get the attention of a dreamy boy who thinks your cute"

Mabel narrowed her eyes dangerously at Vincent, moving her face closer to his. "Keep talking, I'll show you how cute I can be!" she growled at him

"You know what you are?" he said, poking her in the shoulder. "You're a child. A silly little child, who doesn't want to make anything worthwhile out of your life other than just to live it. You're pathetic"

Mabel was left momentarily stunned as Vincent insult sank in, but her rage soon bubbled back to the surface. "That's it! You asked for this!" She raised her right hand up and made it into a fist. She spun it around a few times, before punching herself in the face. Vincent flinched as he felt the impact on his own face. But Mabel didn't stop there, as she continued her assault on own body, knowing the damage would also go to Vincent

"Take this! And this! And this!"

"Stop it!" Vincent snapped at her, grabbing her arms by the wrists to restrain her. Mabel quickly leaned her head down and bite her fingers. Vincent exclaimed, releasing his corresponding hand. He lunged at her again, as they grappled across the room, Vincent trying to hold Mabel down while she began slapping herself in order to hurt him. They pushed and pulled at each other until finally, Mabel was backed up into the nearest wall. However when she hit against it, the wall produced a strange, deep echoing sound as though it were hollow. She only had just enough time to register this noise when she then heard a strange creaking coming from inside the wall. Mabel then pushed at Vincent again, moving away just as the section of the wall collapsed on itself.

But that wasn't the strange part. Once the section gave way, it released a mountain of toys that had been concealed within, which all spilled out from the hidden closet behind the wall, into one massive heap on the floor.

Both Mabel and Vincent quickly ceased their struggling. Though Mabel looked only mildly surprised by this unexpected event, Vincent immediately sucked in his breath and had tensed up as soon as he laid eyes on these toys, with an almost guilty expression on his face. He was so stunned by what had just happened that he didn't think to stop Mabel as she pulled them both closer to the pile

"What is this stuff?" she asked, looking over all the toys with curiosity. She turned back to Vincent "Is this all yours?"

"No!" he lied immediately. "It's not mine!"

"They how come it's in your room?" Mabel said, picking up a small, toy spaceship.

"Don't touch that!" Vincent snatched the spaceship out of her hands and for a moment clutched it protectively to his chest. He then realised what he had done and quickly pulled the toy away from himself again.

"I mean, this is….this is nothing" he said, gesturing frantically with his hands as he tried to explain himself. "This is just some stuff that I-I-I stole, from ah….these little kids a long time ago, because you know, I-I-I'm evil and because I feed on their…. tears and stuff"

Only half listening, Mabel continued to shuffle through the pile of toys, when she came across a small, kid sized helmet with a glass lid tapped over the front. She picked up the helmet and turned it over in her hands when she came across a scribbled note on the inside.

"Space Adventurer, Captain Vincent?" she said, turning to Vincent with a curious expression.

Vincent turned away, now looking extremely embarrassed. Mabel slapped her cheek and gasped deeply. "You're a sci-fi genre enthusiasts! Otherwise known as a nerd!"

"I am not! I'm…I'm…I mean that's just…um….". Vincent could only open and close his mouth helplessly, still trying to think of some way to denying her accusations, until finally he caved in.

"Yes, fine its mine" he admitted with contempt. "When I was a child. All children play with silly little toys when they're children. Then they grow up and move on to bigger and more important things to do with their time which is what I did" he said, crossing his arms and scowling angrily.

"You still are a kid" Mabel said, feeling immensely happy about this sudden role reversal. "You're no bigger than me"

"I'll have you know that by vampire standards, I am at least thirteen, technically a teen" Vincent replied, rather pointedly.

"A teen who keeps a Hunter Solitar and Chum-bobo dolls in his secret closet". Mabel held up two separate dolls in her hand, one of a handsome man with a laser pistol and another of a big hairy beast man.

"Those are not dolls, they are collectables!" Vincent said quickly, but he then covered his own mouth as if he had just said something rude. "I mean, I don't care about those… stupid things"

"Then you won't mind if_ I_ play with them?" Mabel asked teasingly.

Vincent hesitated for a moment as if he was about to answer no, but he quickly recomposed himself, turning his head away and lifting chin up high in a pompous manner "You can do whatever you want with those useless, childish distractions. I, on the other head, am going to read up on how to find a way to get these chains off us, so I can finally get rid of you and then get back to my own work."

Vincent moved back over to his bed, pulling Mabel along by a few feet. He jumped back onto the bed and stuck his head down inside of his book. Before she was dragged back over to the bed, Mabel scooped up a number of the toys into her arms and dropped them down in the front of the bedside.

"Well if you're not going to play with this stuff, then I guess I'll have to" Mabel said. "No sense it letting these stuff go to waste"

"Whatever" Vincent said. "Just keep it down"

Mabel got down her knees and picked up the Hunter Solitar and Chum-bobo dolls. She cleared her throat and cracked her neck, preparing to set the stage for her own magnificent performance

"So Chumy, ready to go on another crazy space adventure?" Mabel said, with what was supposed to be her best Hunter impression.

"Oooowarrrrrrhhhhhhhh" she replied as Chum-bobo

"I agree. You know I really don't appreciate you enough. We've been on all these space adventures together for years now, but when was the last time we just sat down and talked about ourselves? I feel like I don't know the real you"

"Ooowarh, wrahuhuh, gurrrrahhh"

"Oh, Chumy. What would I do without you? If I wasn't so popular and handsome, I might end up getting myself killed one of these days. But I'll always be here for you Chumy. We're like two hands that belong to the same person"

Mabel hugged the two figures close together in a touching display of affection. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Vincent let out a small noise of disgust.

"Oh no!" Mabel yelled, lifting up the Hunter doll. "It's the evil space alien-time-traveling-tentacle-robot-mutant-clone-pirates buccaneers! Quick to Millennium Eagle!"

Mabel picked a small, circle shaped spaceship and started swooshing it through the air, while making a loud spluttering noise with her tongue like a motor propeller. For the next ten minutes, she continued to play by herself using Vincent's old toys in whatever way she could imagine. Although she couldn't stray very far from the bed due the chain that was still attached to her wrist, Mabel was still able to make the absolute most she could out of what she had been given.

On the bed the behind her, Vincent was finding it harder and harder to concentrate on his book. Grunting slightly, he turned over on his side, with his back to Mabel, burying his nose further into the inside of the book, but no matter how much he tried to focus on his reading, he was unable to blot out Mabel's narration coming from behind.

"Look out for the black hole! Now look for that supernova! Now look out for the asteroids! Now look for that pedestrian ship. Get in own space lane you jerk! Now look out for the black hole again! This space is surprisingly full of stuff!

Vincent groaned even louder and pulled his pillow over his head.

"Uh oh! We're being boarded". Mabel picked up a handheld, toy laser gun in her hands. She cocked it once and now looked ready for action. "Time to part-icle down!"

Vincent actually felt that one. It was painful

"Pu-to, pu-to. Pupupupu, pupu! Pu-to!" Mabel was now ducking a waving along the bedside, aiming her space gun at the alien monsters she was fighting, all the while adding her own sound effects. Vincent now pulled his pillow down tighter to his head, unsure how much more of this he could bear.

Mabel started to gasp as she was being strangled by an alien's tentacles, but quickly blasted herself free with her gun and then disintegrated one of the creature's heads as it came at her again.

"Pu-to! Pu-to! Pu-to!"

Vincent started to growl deeply, almost at the breaking point. He shut his eyes and tried to remain calm, tried to focus on his work, tried to remember his mission, but every other thought in his head was getting interrupted by-

"Pu-to! Pu-to!"

"That is it!" Vincent yelled, slamming his book shut with a loud bang that echoed throughout the room. "I can't take this anymore"

Mabel froze up and had no time to stand up or react as Vincent jumped off the bed and stood over her. She looked up at him with an anxious expression, wondering what she had done to set him off now. With an angry glare in his eye, Vincent snatched the toy gun out of Mabel's hands and held it up high. Mabel gulped a little and shut her eyes, already bracing herself for the loud smash to come

Vincent put both hands on the toy gun and aimed it at the nearby wall, in a shooter's pose. "Pew pew, pew pew!" He pointed the gun at a number of invisible targets, apparently hitting each one with pin point accuracy, before finally aiming the gun right between Mabel's eyes.

"Pew" Vincent said quietly He then dropped the gun down into Mabel's hands again. "_That_ is how you make laser noises, rookie" he said, crossing his arms with a rather smug expression.

At first, Mabel wasn't sure what to say, as she was still trying to figure out what just happened. She glanced down at the toy gun her hands, then up to Vincent, and then over to the rest of the toys laying out on the floor. A wryly grin slowly formed on her face. Getting to her feet, she walked over to the pile, bent down and picked up Vincent's makeshift space helmet. She tossed unceremoniously it right into his arms.

"Oh really? Well how bout you show me what else you got, Captain?" she said smoothly. "Or are you too busy to have a little worthless _fun_?"

Vincent seemed surprised by her request and for a moment, he looked as though he had no idea what he was going to do, or more accurately he had no idea what he had just done a few moments. He glanced over his shoulder, back to his discarded book on the bed and then down to the helmet in his hands. Shifting it around in his hands, Vincent soon found his own name, still visible on the side. Despite himself, he could feel a wave of memories coming back to him as he read the words he wrote a long time ago. Looking back up to Mabel, Vincent grinned mischievously.

"Alright, you're on!" he said, placing his helmet back on his head for the first time in years. As he was secretly happy to know, it still fit.

* * *

**Wow. Way longer than I expected. Sorry about the wait, but I'm finding that I can either make the chapters really long or really short. I can't seem to find the right medium in between. **

**Anyway, like to say I'm really glad this story hit over 100 reviews last time and I just noticed that it's been a year last month since I started this story. I'm really happy about how far it's come, and I would like to thank everyone who helped this story get this far. So let's see how far we can go. **

**Not sure when the next chapter will be. I'll try to have it within two weeks, but I can't guarantee anything yet. Hope you enjoyed reading, please leave a review, and peace out.**


	30. What lies at Bottom of the Well

**FrancisVamp0822: **Thank you

**Lennoxmacduffes: **Still liking your story

**MidnightGust:** Things can only go down from here

**coldblue: **Good question, but that really is a spoiler alert.

At some point, Vincent may drop some hints that Stan is not who he says he is, but Mabel probably won't believe him. But it depends on if he has any reason to tell her.

* * *

Dipper was sitting several feet off the ground, atop a huge pile of books, surrounded by dozens of taller stacks. In his hands, he was holding an extensively long list of the library books that still needed to be re-catalogue, which stretched out across the floor. Behind him, Soos picked up another one of the book stacks into his arms and attentively began to place each of the books back in their appropriate places on the nearby shelves.

"Okay" Dipper said, rubbing his tired eyes. "We've gone through arts, language, history, geography, literature, and social-political drama-fantasy novels with dragons and ice zombies. Now we just need to move on to tax insurance, marriage counselling and young adult novels based on fanfiction. Hopefully, this will only take us another couple of hours to get done. Then we can go look for Mabel"

Soos climbed up on a ladder, setting some more books onto the top self. "Boy dude, it's too bad that we got inconveniently preoccupied by having to resort through all these and ended up wasting valuable time we could have used to track down Mabel now that she's been chained up to Vincent as a result of your spur of the moment decision to capture him"

"Yes, Soos" Dipper said, sounding irritated. "Thank you once again for reminding me about what happened two hours ago. I was_ just_ starting to forget"

"Oh, sorry dude" he said. "But I have this terrible habit of compulsively blurting out self-narrated exposition on past events to help me stay up speed on what's going on around me. What's wrong dude?" Soos asked, noticing Dipper's downhearted expression. Before Dipper could answer back, Soos chuckled. "Just kidding. I'm not stupid. You're guilt tripping yourself because I just thoughtlessly reminded you of the fact that your sister's life is now in the hands of your arch enemy"

Dipper just sighed in exhaustion and slumped forward, resting his arms on his knees. Surprisingly, he found that Soos' comment blunt accuracy was unable to make him feel any worse about the situation

"How could I be so stupid to think that I could capture Vincent by myself?" he moaned. "If I had just left well enough alone, Mabel would safe at her dance contest right now, having the time of her life and being the life of the party as usual, while I'd be watching from the side lines as usual". Dipper smiled a little as he imagined the scenario in his mind. "And then she'd drag me up on stage with her, and even though I'd only end up totally humiliating myself, she'd still somehow manage to find some way of coercing me into to dancing with her. But now she's probably getting mercilessly tortured by Vincent. Or worse. And it's all my fault"

"Don't worry dude" Soos said, putting a reassuring hand around Dipper's shoulder. "Mabel's a tough little chestnut, and her neck area, while deliciously meaty, is both taut and sturdy enough to protect her any form of vampiric blood sucking penetration. She'll be okay"

"I hope so" Dipper said. "Let's back to work. The sooner we finish here the sooner we-". Dipper was cut off when he suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of a disgruntled voice, complaining over what sounded like a trivial topic. Jumping off the books, Dipper rounded the corner of the shelf and spotted the backside of his Grunkle Stan, standing at the reception desk, arguing with the librarian.

"Look, I'm telling you, these books aren't overdue" he said to the librarian. "Just check the date stamp on the inside of the cover. See, it's totally authentic. I know, I drew over it myself. Ah, wait, what I mean is I stole them"

"Grunkle Stan?" Dipper said, approaching him.

Stan turned around from the desk with surprise to his see his nephew. "Dipper? What, are you allergic to fresh air now? What're you doing here?"

"Soos and I… are helping to restock some books" Dipper invented quickly, as Soos came to stand beside him.

"Where's your sister?" Stan asked, looking around.

"Ah…she's…out looking for a dance partner for the contest later tonight" Dipper said, putting on a broad smile. "Right Soos?"

"Oh yeah" Soos said in agreement. "She was having trouble finding one earlier. Then she accidently got hand cuffed to Vincent the vampire with a pair of shackles that Dipper found in the Northwest Mansion. It happened while he and Dipper were the in middle of having a climatic showdown here in the library. Then Vincent abducted Mabel and took her to parts unknown, while Dipper and I have been stuck fixing up these books that got over"

It was only a few seconds after he had finally stopped talking, did Soos realise how much he actually said. He threw Dipper an apologetic look. "Sorry dude. It's a serious addiction"

"Oh, for crying out loud. What is it with you kids and getting yourselves kidnapped?" Stan said, rubbing his eyes wearily. "Can't you be out doing some mindless vandalism instead like normal kids? When I was your age I went joy riding in my dad's old car and I was darn proud of it….till cops pulled me over"

"Wow Mr Pines" Soos said, innocently impressed. "You must have been pretty tall for you age if you were able reach down to the pedals of your Dad's car while still using the steering wheel without any other assistance "(**cough**secrettwin**cough**)

"Grunkle Stan, I made a mess of things" Dipper said, hanging his head in shame. "I know you must be angry and if you want to yell at me then-"

Stan quickly waved a dismissively hand over Dipper, looking disinterested. "Yeah, yeah. You made some huge mistake and now you're feeling all guilty about it, blah, blah, blah. But here's the scoop on life Dipper. You can't pay anybody back with self-pity. Seriously, you really can't. I know, I tried" he added, sounding perfectly serious. "Not even if you throw some extra pathetic grovelling at half the price". Stan then put a hand on top of Dipper's head, giving him a gentle pat. "Don't beat yourself up kid. We'll find your sister. You have any idea where that vampire kid took her?"

"I'm not sure" Dipper said. "They could have gone anywhere, but we can't leave till we put all these books back"

"Well, you'll never do it at this rate" Stan said, straightening himself and adjusting his tie. "And as usual, it looks you need my expert motivational skills to get this job done right. Soos! Quit standing around. Pick up the pace and grab some books. And finish up with that aisle over there, you missed one of the books on that shelf"

Soos turned his head around in confusion. "I did? But Dipper said we were done with that section"

"Whadaya mean done? There's a gap right there". Stan pointed to one of the books shelf which was completely filled up from side to side with books, save for one small gap right in the middle

"Wait a minute" Dipper whispered, eyeing the empty space. He then slapped his forehead in disbelief. "Of course, why didn't I think of this sooner!? Right before they disappeared, Vincent had grabbed a book from the library. If we can find which book he took, then that might give us a clue about where he's taken Mabel"

Dipper retrieved the list of library books from the pile and frantically started to run through it. "Okay, all the books here should be account for. The one that's missing is….A Brief History of Land in Oregon. There should be another copy….right about….here"

Dipper grabbed one of the copies out from the book pile and quickly opened it up, as if expecting the answers he was looking for would pop out in front of him, but his enthusiasm dropped once he flipped through a couple of pages.

"There's nothing in here" he said, disappointed. "This is just an old history archive of land owners that have been in Gravity Falls for the past hundred years. But there's so many names, we'll never figure out which one Vincent was looking for. Nathanial Northwest, Bufford Blubs, Quincy Forkinberg, Seamus O'Fergus MacAngus….

"SEAMUS O'FERGUS MAC ANGUS!?"

Dipper jumped back with fright as the head of Old Man McGucket suddenly popped itself out from underneath the pile of books.

"Old Man McGucket?" Dipper exclaimed, after he's heart rate had slowed down. "What are you doing under there?"

"Well see, I was just in here reading up the latest addition of my favourite fanfiction based novel, _51 Shades of Plagiarism_" McGucket held up a thick book in his hands as if to emphasize his statement. "When all of a sudden, I was buried beneath a mountain of books that hit me over the head, giving me a mild concussion. But luckily I found that they go away after a quick nap"

Still a little surprised, but recomposing himself, another, more pressing question soon popped into Dipper's mind. "Does that name I mentioned mean something to you?" he asked McGucket.

"No, I just suffer from occasional bouts of tourretes every now and again" McGucket replied. "NOW AND AGAIN! But coincidently, yes I have heard that name before. MacAngus is part of an old urban legend, known exclusively to the hillbilly community"

"What do know about?" Dipper asked.

"What, we're gonna ask the local town nutcase for help?" Stan said, deeply sceptical. "What the heck does this guy know?"

Dipper ignored Stan's comment and kept his eyes on McGucket. "Just clear your head and tells what you know. This is important"

McGucket stroked his white beard, taking on a much more serious demeanour compared to his usual eccentric self

"Well if my memory serves me, which it usually doesn't, Seamus O'Fergus MacAngus was farmer who owned a piece of land not too far from the town over sixty years ago. But during the construction of a water well on his property, there was a horrible underground cave-in that collapsed the well and trapped MacAngus underneath. By the time any help arrived to dig him out, it was already too late and he was believed to be dead. But a few weeks later, he mysteriously reappeared. When asked about where he had been, he claimed that he had escaped the cave-in through a crevice between the rocks which led him into a deep subterranean cavern. And as he journeyed further and further down, he eventually came upon something incredible. An ancient and long lost city, buried deep underground"

"A lost city?" Dipper said in amazement.

"Buried deep underground?" Soos chimed in, with equal astonishment.

"I'm bored and hungry" Stan said, not having anything to repeat, but also didn't want to feel left out

"That's right" McGucket continued. "Of course back then, nobody believed MacAngus' story due to his lack of shaky cam found footage to validate his claim or make a profitable movie out of his experience. Determined to prove that he was telling the truth, so he set out on an expedition to try and find the city once again. But unfortunately, once MacAngus went back underground, he was never seen or heard from again. And after a few years, the land he owned was later auctioned off to some orchard company"

"That has to be it!" Dipper said, his mind now racing. "Vincent must be looking for this underground city and wanted to find out which land belonged to MacAngus"

"You seriously think he's looking for some city hidden underground?" Stan said with disbelief. "That's only slightly more crazier than the usual crazy stuff we get mixed up in"

"But Mr Pines, what about that time we found that underground cavern filled with dinosaurs?" Soos said.

"Soos, be quiet" Stan barked at him. "I'm my voicing scepticism here"

"Rumour also has it that MacAngus' city was said to be made of pure gold" McGucket added.

"And my interests are now officially peaked" Stan said, with a happy smile.

"Okay, this is the best lead that we have" Dipper said, his voice becoming confident and commanding once more. "We have to follow it up. McGucket, do you know where the water well was that MacAngus disappeared into?"

"I sure do" he replied. "But might I ask you something first? See I couldn't help over hearing some your expositional-laden dialogue from before". Dipper briefly cast Soos an odd sideways glance. "You mentioned somebody named Vincent. Now that name sounds _really_ familiar to me and for some reasons, it makes the two holes on my neck start to tingle"

"He's like this vampire kid that's been causing all kinds of trouble in town for the past few weeks" Stan answered.

"Another vampire!?" McGucket cried, now sounding terrified. "Oh, and I was just done recovering from that one who attacked me and probed my mind for information a few weeks ago"

There was a moment of silence as Dipper took this information in, but decided not to press too deeply on it just yet and instead tried to stay on track. "Do you know anything about this vampire?" he asked. "He's name is Vincent and he said that he knew the Author. He even said that he helped him with his research"

"Well….I_ think_ that I did see him somewhere before" McGucket said, rubbing his head, trying to piece together his thoughts. "There was something about him. Something really bad. It was…..Oh, I'm sorry. I'm memory just ain't there anymore. But I do remember one thing. When that kid got angry, he scared the heebies, the jeebies and all the hornswackle out of me. I don't wanna go messing with him again"

"You only have to show us where the well is" Dipper assured him. "We'll take from there. Now let's finish with". Soos and Stan went back to sorting through the rest of the books. Dipper was about to join them but McGucket pulled him back for a second

"Dipper, wait. You remember what I said back at the Northwest party? That thing I was trying to warn you about?" McGucket took out the repaired laptop from the bunker and started to type in numbers on the keypad. "Well my turns out my calculations we're a little far off. It seems like there's some kind of abnormal interference going on, but it's beginning to look like whatever's gonna happen, is gonna happen soon and then-"

"There's no time for that now" Dipper said, shaking his head. "We'll deal with that stuff when it happens. But right now, we have to find Mabel. Who knows what unspeakable horrors Vincent is putting her through?"

* * *

"Aah, you chopped off my hand!" Mabel cried, clutching the wrist of her empty sleeve.

"Aah, you chopped off my hand!" Vincent cried in response, clutching his own wrist. A moment later, his hand popped back out from his sleeve. "But now I have a new, cybernetic robot hand that has a built in laser gun that'll blast you to pieces"

"Aha, but I also have a new robot hand that deflect you're laser!" Mabel said, pulling her own hand back out from her wrist. "With _two_ lasers guns and a shield that deflects your laser and also a time machine button thing!"

"Aha, but my robot hand also has a temporal field generator that negates time travel!" Before Mabel has a chance to respond, Vincent spoke again. "And it has a built in sub-zero freeze gun! No wait! It's got a grenade launcher that fires mini black holes. No wait! A laser powered chainsaw that also shoots out homing buzz saws of death and a missile launcher that shoots missiles that blow up into a hundred smaller missiles, that also blow up into a million tiny missiles and they uses anti-dark-anti-matter that vaporises everything into sub atomic particles and-

"Whoa, whoa, whoa" Mabel said, quickly raising her hands in the air as Vincent had begun to talk in rapid succession, becoming extremely excited. She reached out for his hands and lowered them. "Slow down there bucko. You're over simulated. Take a deep breath"

"Ah, ok, ok. I'm cool, I'm cool" Vincent started to slow his breathing down in attempt to calm himself.

"There we go, easy now. Just relax and- DIE ALIEN SCUM!" Mabel pulled out a small pistol from her back and aimed it right at Vincent, who raised his hands in the air, apparently surrendering without any fight. However his face soon turned to a sly grin before he flicked one of his fingers backyards. The pistol then flew right out of Mabel's hand and right into Vincent's own, quickly turned the table on her.

"Hey no fair!" Mabel protested. "No vampire powers!"

"That's not vampire powers" Vincent said smugly. "That's my space powers! Totally different"

Mabel scowled in disapproval at Vincent's action, but then put on a sly grin of her own. She raised her left hand and bit down hard on her fingers. Vincent yelped with pain as he felt the pain in his fingers and then released the gun in his hand.

Now it was Vincent's turn to protest. "No fair!"

"What?" Mabel said sweetly innocent. "My hand just happened to flip into my mouth"

Vincent rolled his eyes, holding back a small chuckle." Oh, yeah, whatever. But there's no time for that!" he said, putting on a more dramatic persona. "My instruments show that the core of his planet is unstable and is gonna blow up in ten really slow seconds! To the ship!"

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Mabel said, saluting him. She then lowered her voice to a stage whisper. "Is the bed the ship?"

"Yes" Vincent whispered back. Together they ran over and climbed on Vincent's old bed or in this moment, his intergalactic star cruiser. Vincent stood at the front of the bed, with one leg raised on the headboard, striking an overly heroic pose.

"Engines ready Captain!" Mabel said.

"Begin the countdown. Fivefourthreetwoone BLAST OFF"

Vincent gripped the head board of the bed, acting as though it was a steering wheel, while Mabel sat behind, making a loud whooshing sound effect that was supposed to resemble a ship's engine firing at full speed.

"Ah, we're not gonna make Captain!" Mabel cried dramatically, with an odd accent in her voice

"It'll more than that to stop this Captain" Vincent declared. "Full Throttle! And….we're clear! Aha! No planet can blow up in slow motion fast enough to defeat Space Adventurer, Captain Vincent!"

"Watch out! Meter shower! Ka-boom!" Mabel started to jump up and down on the bed, waving her hands in the air, making explosive sound effects. Vincent soon joined in and jumped on the bed along with Mabel, waving his own arms and adding his sound effects in unison to hers.

In the middle of their jumping, Mabel lost her footing against the edge of the bed and fell off, bringing Vincent down with her. They landed together in one big tangled heap on the floor, the chain of their shackle knotted tightly around their bodies. For a brief moment they both shared a quick glance at each other and then a second later, they both burst out laughing uncontrollably at their own circumstance. They soon separated again and rolled back against the floor opposite one another, holding their sides as they kept hollering rambunctiously.

Once their laughter finally died down, Vincent just fell back to floor, letting out a long and exhausted sigh of contentment. "Oh! I haven't done this in _soooo_ long. I forgot how much fun this could be"

"I thought you said fun was worthless?" Mabel said, grinning wryly.

"Well, actually my grandpa is the one who said that" Vincent explained, sitting back. "He wanted me work all the time on how to use my powers, so I didn't have time to play and he wouldn't let me keep any toys"

"But you still had toys the in your room" Mabel said, picking up one of the spaceships.

"Well, yeah" Vincent admitted a bit mischievously. "I had to keep it on the down low so that he wouldn't find out, but I can hardly ever remember the last time I had this much fun all this old stuff"

"You sure looked like you know what you were doing, _Captain_" Mabel said a little teasingly, pointing at his helmet. "Or should I say, Space Adventurer, Captain Vincent! Pah-pa-purh!" she said, mimicking a trumpet sound.

Vincent chuckled a little. "Yeah, I used to love everything about space" he said, taking off his helmet and placing it between his legs. "Truth is, I've kinda been obsessed with that stuff ever since that day I saw the moon landing"

"You actually saw that?" Mabel said, surprised.

"Oh yeah!" Vincent said, brightening up immensely. "It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen! That someone could actually fly all the way up there and touch a part of the sky itself. It's like touching a part of a whole, unexplored universe just full of amazing wonders, just waiting for someone to find. Oh, I would have given anything to go there". Vincent rested his elbow down on his helmet, smiling fondly at the prospect of going into space.

"Well why didn't you?" Mabel asked.

For a moment, Vincent looked so surprised by Mabel's question he didn't know how to respond. "What do you mean?"

"If you wanted to go into space so bad, how come you didn't try?"

"Because it wasn't ever gonna happen" he said. "So I forgot about it"

"But why?"

Vincent frowned and threw his hand up in the air, trying to think of a way to explain himself so Mabel would understand. "Because it just wasn't going to happen"

"But how could you give up on something that you loved so much?" Mabel asked, frowning sadly.

"Because it was just a stupid idea and it was stupid of me for every thinking about!" Vincent snapped in frustration. "That was just _reality_, okay? I had more important things to do. Ever since the day I came to this house, my grandpa had been training me to fulfil the legacy of our family. Whatever I fantasies I had when I was a little kid, they didn't matter anymore. Grandpa always said that I couldn't afford any silly distractions. He said that if I wanted to be worth anything then I needed to work hard and focus everything on achieving success. And if I didn't live up to his expectations, he…"

Vincent trailed off, grimacing slightly as he remembered his time with his grandfather. "He got…_angry_. He said that I couldn't afford to fail, like he and the rest our family did"

"Jeez, what could you possibly have to do that would be so important?" Mabel asked, unable to think of anything that might mean so much to someone.

Vincent turned away from Mabel and cast his eyes down, looking a little discontent with the way the conversation has gone.

"You know, Mabel, I'm feeling kinda tired" he said, and by the sound of his voice, that did seem to be the case. "I think I'll just sleep for a bit". He placed his helmet down and shifted his position lower to the floor, laying his head down against the floorboards, his back to Mabel. She briefly thought about trying to talk again, but held her tongue back, feeling that she may have accidently upset touched on a bad topic.

"Um, okay, guess, I'll take a nap too" she said, in a vain attempt to sound pleasant, but Vincent didn't respond. Feeling dejected, she lay her head down on the floor and stared up to the ceiling, already beginning to feel her drowsiness catch up to her.

* * *

As it turned out, much to Mabel's surprise, Vincent was an active sleeper. He kept tossing and turning around the floor, flopping his arms from side to side every five minutes. Not that this was what was keeping Mabel awake. Instead, what was really bothering her was how her own body was being forcibly tugged to the side each time Vincent flipped himself over, due to his supernatural strength, and all the while sleeping peacefully himself.

It had reached the point where Mabel had gotten almost no rest at all and was now just trying to keep her arm from being tore off. Grunting with frustration, Mabel rested her head down on her other elbow, looking visibly disgruntled by her circumstances. Her eyes started to wander around the room, when spotted the pillow on Vincent's bed.

Thinking that she might earn herself a bit more comfort, Mabel edged herself closer to the bed, trying to reach the pillow. However, every time she pulled at the chain on her arm, Vincent simply tugged his arm back without waking himself up. Pulling at the shackle with all her might, she stretched out her free arm as far as she could, reaching for the pillow, the tips of her fingers just brushing against the fabric. She finally managed to grip it just as Vincent turned over once again, pulling Mabel back against the floor, along with the pillow.

Grunting again, Mabel rubbed her back of her head, feeling more irritated, but the same time, satisfied that she had gotten the pillow. She reached over to bring it close enough for her to lay her head on, but stopped when she noticed something strange. Sticking out from inside the pillow cover, she saw what looked to be the corner of a brown piece of paper. Surprised by this sudden discovery, she removed the paper from the pillow, revealing it to in fact be an envelope, unmarked and unopened.

Seeing Vincent was still asleep and feeling a dangerous sense of curiosity (as if there was any other kind), Mabel quietly tore open the envelope and unfolded the letter that was inside.

Squinting her eyes in the light from the candle on the nearby table, Mabel slowly read through the contents of the letter. And as she read through more and more of the letter, her eyes slowly began to widen in an expression of shock. Once she fully understood what she was reading, she let out an inaudible gasp.

But before she could even think on what to do next, a high pitched ringing noise sounded out in the room. Mabel flinched at the noise which was coming from Vincent's phone on the table. She wheeled around just in time to see Vincent waking up from his nap.

He yawned loudly as he sat up straight, stretching his arms out above his head. Scratching his under arm a little, he turned to look at Mabel who was looking back at him with anxiousness

"Something wrong?" he asked her.

Hands behind her back, Mabel just smiled nervously. "No, no, no, no! Everything's fine! Haha! What's wrong with _youuu?"_ she said, while discreetly slipping the letter into the back of her sweater. Feeling much too groggy from his short nap, Vincent didn't bother to press the issue. Standing up again, he picked his phone off the table and turned off the alarm.

"Well it's dark again, so I have to go". Vincent tangled his end of the chain a little. "Which of course means _we_ have to go"

"But I thought you wanted to find a way to get these shackles off us?" Mabel said.

"I don't have the time for that now" Vincent replied, already pulling her to the door. "I need to go now, before the sun comes back up, otherwise this all just take longer". Together they left the bedroom and walked down the hallway, until coming back to the ruin section of the house where the roof was gone, allowing them to look up at the now clear night sky.

"Are we…walking all the way there?" Mabel asked, remember what happened last time.

"I _was_ hoping to fly, or are you going to-" Vincent trailed off, a little awkwardly.

"No, no, it's fine" Mabel said. "I don't mind. But um, how would this work exactly? Can you levitate me?"

"I can only move inanimate objects, not people" Vincent answered.

"So what, do you come with a side car?" Mabel asked, quipping slightly.

Unamused, but still seeing her point, Vincent thought the problem over for a second. He looked over Mabel and at the chain binding them together with scrutiny. Seeing no other, easier alternative, Vincent sighed with reluctance and moved in front of Mabel. He then bent down on one knee and showed his back to her.

"Get on" he said lazily.

"Huh?" Mabel said.

"Get on. I'll carry you the way there, okay? Just think of it as a-

"Magic flying vampire piggy back ride across the stars!?" Mabel finished for him.

"….I'm not calling it that" Vincent said dryly.

Smiling with excitement, Mabel placed her hands firmly on Vincent's shoulders and then slide her legs in-between his arms. Vincent hooked his arms securely inside her legs and then stood up, with Mabel still holding his shoulders for support.

"Oh stewardess, may I have another bag of peanuts?" Mabel asked him with a perfectly straight face. Vincent glanced back her, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, it's a respectable job for men too" she said defensively.

Vincent rolled his eyes, already beginning to regret his decision "Just hang on".

Squatting his legs a little, Vincent pushed himself off the ground as easily as if he were only jumping a few feet in the air, but instead of dropping back down, he continued to rise further and further up, going through the hole in the celling and leaving the mansion behind. Feeling the force of Vincent's ascent nearly throwing her off his shoulder, Mabel involuntarily wrapped her arms around his neck to keep herself from falling off. Once they reached a certain height, Vincent came to a halt in the air and then took off in a westward direction, going at a relatively mild speed.

"Onward vampire piggy! Onward!" Mabel cried out proudly into the night sky, raising his fist in the air.

"Unless you want bugs in your teeth, I suggest keeping your mouth closed" Vincent said over the wind.

"Haha, nice try, but you'll have to do better than-ack!" Mabel suddenly felt something small fly into the back of her mouth, causing her to start choking on her own words, both literally and figuratively. Despite himself, Vincent couldn't help but chuckle a little at her expense. They continued flying for several minutes, passing over various stretches of land. Mabel found herself to be enjoying the flight, barring any more bugs in her mouth, while Vincent was keeping his eyes focused on the ground as if making sure not to miss anything.

He then came to an abrupt halt in the air when he spotted something below them. He was about to fly down, but glanced back over his shoulder, looking at something in the other direction. He paused for a long moment, as if unsure where he wanted to go, until finally he turned around and flew back about a hundred yards in the air, while beginning to descend downwards.

Once they had landed, Mabel dismounted from Vincent and started to take in her new surroundings. It appeared as though they had landed in a large orchard grove, filled with rows upon rows of trees. Upon closer inspection, Mabel could see that they were apple trees, with dozens of fresh fruit growing on the end of the branches

"What are we doing here?" she asked. Vincent didn't reply. Instead he focused his attention on a nearby tree. He raised his hand up toward it and in response, the branches of the tree started to shake and rustle. A few moments later, a bundle of apples rained down around their feet, along with what looked to be a dead bird which hit the ground with a splat.

One apples landed right in front of Vincent, who caught the fruit with the tip of his foot. He kicked it upwards and then caught it in between his two hands. He then turned around and offered the apple to Mabel, who just stared at the piece of fruit, taken back by Vincent's abrupt gesture. She threw him a questioning glance, as if expecting him to give her some kind of explanation to his actions, but he simply shrugged indifferently

"You said before that you were hungry" he said. "So here". He pushed the apple closer to her.

Mabel still appeared hesitant about taking the apple from him, mauling the decision over cautiously. Wondering what Dipper might do if he was here in her place, she knew immediately that he'd probably suspect the apple to really be poison or part of some kind of elaborate trick. But then Mabel remembered exactly how hungry she really was and when she looked into Vincent's face, which showed no signs of deceit or maliciousness, she realised that this might really just be his way of trying to be nice to her. So as always, Mabel decided to throw caution to the wind and not worry about the possible adverse/deathly consequences.

"Um, thanks". She quickly took the apple out of his hands and without further haste, she took a plentiful bite out of the delicious fruit, savouring the sweet juice inside before swallowing. She soon began to wolf down the apple, already beginning to feel more nourished with each bite. After devouring the apple down to a stump, Mabel picked up another one off the ground but before she started to eat it, she paused when she suddenly realised something interesting about this scenario.

"You know this reminds a little of a famous book that I read once" she said. "About a girl and a boy with an apple, and-HOLY TURKEY BASTER!"

Mabel felt her throat clench shut and went wide eyed as she watched Vincent, who had absently picked the dead bird off the ground while she was eating, and then proceeded to literally bite its head clean off as easily if he was taking a bite out of a bar of chocolate.

Vincent churned his jaw as he crunched up the birds head and then shallowed it all in one gulp. He licked his lips and sucked on his index finger, feeling quite satisfied with his meal. He then noticed the look of repulsion Mabel was giving him.

"What?" he said, with just a hint of indignation. "I'm hungry too, I haven't eaten in a while"

Mabel gulped deeply, dropping the apple in her hand and putting it over her lips, trying to keep down the one she had just eaten. "I thought….. you only drank blood" she choked out.

"Well, I don't need blood _all_ the time" Vincent replied. "I can live off some raw meat now and again. Besides if I was a drinking human blood, people would notice and try to track me down".

This didn't seem to comfort Mabel, who was still looked nauseous to the point of gagging. Vincent shifted his position and crossed his arms, almost as though he was a bit self-conscious over her disapproval.

"Don't judge me!" he said. "It was dead before it even hit the ground, so it was free game. Look I can either eat a dead bird or I have to drink a human's blood. So if I were _you_, I wouldn't play that card". Remorseless, Vincent stuffed the rest the bird into his mouth, chewed it up and then swallowed it whole.

"You done?" he asked her, picking a feather out of the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, I'm good" Mabel coughed, sounding as far from good as possible, with one hand clenching her stomach.

"Okay, let's go". Picking up their feet once again, they made their way out of the orchard and entered into nearby woods. Cutting a path through the trees, they soon entered into a large, empty clearing in the middle of the woods. At the far of end of the clearing was a tall, vine covered stone, which was standing upright like a kind of monument.

Mabel followed Vincent as they approached the stone pillar. As they entered into the clearing, Mabel noticed that the ground under her feet became surprisingly hard and firm, as though they were now standing on a man-made floor. They stopped a few feet short of the pillar which sat on the very edge of the clearing. Though Mabel couldn't see what was so special about it, Vincent was staring at the barren rock intently.

"So what is this place?" Mabel asked.

"MacAngus' Discovery" Vincent replied, but his answer only served to confuse Mabel further. "That's what he marked this location as. When I came here last night, I couldn't figure it out what it meant, but then I looked up on MacAngus' and if his story was in fact true, then according to my grandfather's scrolls, the actual entrance must be hidden around here somewhere"

"Entrance to what?" Mabel asked, not understanding even half of what Vincent was saying.

Again, he didn't answer her, as he was too focused on the pillar. "Now let's see, how did it go again? Here stands the pillar that was built to stand on the sky. To reach the city under the land, build the pillar toward the sky. Within its shadow, you will find the keystone that will be the foundation for this great structure"

"What does _that _mean?!" Mabel asked, flopping her arms in the air, sounding incredible exasperated.

"It means, that there is a key hidden somewhere around this pillar" Vincent said, dragging her along with him as he began to circle the stone, his eyes taking in every detail possible. "Now obviously this must be some kind of riddle, so I'll have to use all my cunning to figure out where-"

"Is this it?" Mabel said, immediately picking something off the ground. Vincent stared at what was in her hand, before his face dropped into a blank expression.

"That's a rock" he said, deadpanned

"No, it's not" Mabel said casually. She tapped the rock on Vincent's forehead, but instead of the sharp pain he had been expecting, he felt an empty thump hit him on the head. Surprised, he took the rock out of Mabel's hands and as soon as he touched it, realised that it was hollow and made of plastic. Turing it on its side, he saw that there was a golden and jewel ornamented key embedded into the underside. Vincent plucked the key out of the fake rock, holding it up with some disbelief.

"Huh" was all he could think to say. "Key, stone. Not keystone. Guess I read that wrong." He inclined his head toward Mabel. "Thank you".

With the key now in hand, Vincent started to back track from the pillar, counting his steps as he did

"Okay, one, two, three, four paces, and two more to the right, and then-"

Vincent got down on one knee and then swept away some of the dirt on the ground, revealing a tiny key hole carved into the solid stone underneath the grass. He stuck the key inside the hole and turned.

"So, where exactly are we going?" Mabel asked, hoping to finally get a straight answer.

"Down" Vincent replied, standing back up

No sooner than when he said this, came a loud boom throughout the clearing, as though a large boulder had just been dropped somewhere. The ground started rumbled and shake. Mabel wobbled and fell on her back side, while Vincent stood firmly. After a few seconds, once the shaking died down, a cloud of dust sprayed up from out of the ground as a huge line slowly formed in the dirt. The line soon became a perfect circle that encompassed the centre of clearing where Mabel and Vincent were standing. There came another boom as the circle began to sink downward, like a giant stone elevator, taking the two of them down into the darkness below.

* * *

**Again, I'm sorry about the long wait, but since I don't actually get paid to write this stuff, it's not exactly going to be my top priority. Not that I don't enjoy doing it, but I won't always have the time for it I'm afraid. Plus there was a lot going on in this chapter and the next one will be something of the climax to this current arc, so I wanted to get it all done in one go rather than split it into another chapter.**

**Anyway, important update. Since this story has become so long and no, the end is not close in sight, I've been considering two things.**

**1\. To split this story up into at least two parts and begin the second half a new story, which will take place around the time the portal is opened. This isn't set in stone, but just an idea if people feel this story is getting too long to read as it is. Please let me know what you think.**

**2\. The second suggestion is that I actually want to name the chapters I've done so far. Instead of just Chapter 1 or 2, I'm thinking of giving them actual titles to help make it easier for people to navigate. I have a few in mind so far, but if anyone has any suggestion for chapter names, please leave them in the reviews, or feel free to PM.**

**Also, yes. That was a reference to twilight. The scene where Edward hands Bella the apple. I never actually understood what it meant, but then I learned that it's meant to be a play on Adam and Eve. I thought it was appropriate to include, as both a satirical parody of the series and to also show how Vincent and Mabel are slowly becoming a bit friendlier to each other, only to have the moment ruined **

**So, next chapter we'll be seeing a lot of new stuff, the characters are gonna reunite again. Dipper is also going to learn what Vincent is really after, while Mabel may finally get her moment to show off some of her dance moves.**

**Finally, hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review and peace out.**


	31. Road to Underlandtis

**Deepest apologizes for the long delay. I know I said that this would be the concluding chapter to this part of the story, but due to its sheer length I decided to split it into two parts, otherwise the total chapter would twice the length of this one. Splitting chapters up is helpful I feel, because it lets me update quicker and minimizes the work load, plus I ended up liking the pacing that this chapter provides better. Anyway, next part will definitely be the last part**

**Also, thanks to everyone for their advice on naming the chapters. By now you can see the difference. Some of them I think were a bit lazy. If you have suggestions feel free to give them.**

**This chapter was in fact supposed to go up before the weekend, but due to an error, all the edits I did went unsaved and I to rewrite at least 2000 words as a result, but it's here now, so enjoy**

* * *

With a resounding thud, the stone circle finally came to a stop after traveling to an unknown depth. Mabel, who fell on her back after they had landed, got to feet again, feeling a little disoriented from the drop. This wasn't helped by the fact that she was literally unable to see a thing. She and Vincent were now surrounded by absolute darkness, making it impossible for her to see anything around. They had descended so far down the shaft that even the opening above their heads from where they came appeared as just a tiny speck in the distance, offering no light at all.

"Whoa!" Mabel said, genuinely amazed by the total blackness around her. "It's so dark down here, that I can't even see my hands in front of my face. It's like I'm blind! Or my eyes have been glued shut… again"

"Its fine, don't panic" Vincent said calmly.

Choosing the reversal of that, Mabel jumped with fright at the sound of his voice. "Wah! What, who's there?"

"Who do you _think_ it is?" Vincent snapped impatiently. "The guy who's handcuffed to you"

"Oh right sorry. Guess I'm not used to this darkness yet. Looks like I'll have to relay my other senses to get through this. I'll just visualise my surroundings with my keen sense of smell, sound and touch." Mabel stretched her hands in the air and then felt them around something next to her. "Hmm, now what could this be?" she said, poking and prodding at the unseen object. "It feels kinda hard and stiff, like a big ball of wax. But also really mussy"

"Dat's mah furce!" Vincent said, his voice half muffled by Mabel's hand pulling at his cheek. Realising her mistake, she quickly pulled her arms away from him with a nervous chuckle. Vincent rubbed the side of his face, a little irradiated. "That's not gonna do you much good anyway" he said. "At this depth, no light whatsoever can seep in or reflect off any surface. It would be impossible for you or anyone else to be able to see without-". Vincent suddenly paused and then sighed in exasperation. "Mabel, your eyes may not work in the dark, but _mine _do! I can still see you, so you can stop making those faces at me. Oh, just hang on"

Mabel heard Vincent make a slight rustling noise as he started to move around. A moment later, a brilliant ball of light lit up in the palm of his hand. Shielding her eyes, Mabel saw that he was holding a small orb which was emitting the light. Releasing it, the orb floated up above their heads and stayed there, providing much needed illumination. Now that there was a source of light, Mabel could get a clear view of her surroundings. They were still standing on the circular stone platform which had brought them down into a huge underground cavern. At the end of the end of it was a passageway craved out of the rock, leading further into the darkness.

"Okay, seriously" Mabel said, unable to contain herself any longer. "What's the plot here?"

Vincent stepped forward and hopped off the platform, the chain on his arm forcing Mabel to do the same. The orb of light that he released soon started to follow them as they began to move, remaining a fixed distance above and behind them at all times.

"This catacomb will lead us to the entrance of a long lost, ancient city, known as Underlandtis" he said, as the two of them entered into the passageway. "I read about it once or twice in my studies, but there were no records about exactly where the city was located. Before a few days ago, I would never have guessed that it would be here of all places. But then again, this is Gravity Falls. Anyway, I made the connection when heard this story about some old farmer who got lost in a cave in and then claimed to have found the city. Once I confirmed which piece of land was which, I just needed to look through my grandfather's scrolls which showed me to unlock the surface entrance that we just used, which was built by the Underlandtians. That's the name of the people who lived here by the way" he added, inclining his head toward Mabel. "Just in case you didn't catch that part. Did you?"

Mabel raised a hand and shook her head respectfully. "No, no I got that part."

"Ah good" he said. "I was worried that I was getting a little too long winded there for a second"

"Oh, no, you were fine. It's cool. So are the people who live down here friendly?"

"There is no one down here" Vincent answered. "Not anymore. The Underlandtians and their entire civilisation was wiped over a thousand years ago"

"Wiped out? By what?"

"Well the thing is, when a civilisation gets wiped out, generally nobody is left alive to say what it was that killed them. But whatever it was, I'm sure we don't have to worry about it now. We'll just get in, find what I need and then leave"

Vincent ducked his head down just as they came to a low hanging stalactite. Despite the light coming from the floating orb following them, the tunnel was still dark enough that Mabel almost didn't see the stalactite in time and narrowly avoided banging her head off it.

"What's down here that's so important?" she asked Vincent.

"Down here is something I've been searching for a long time" he replied, his voice dropping into a low and serious tone. "Down here is an important treasure that once belonged to my family but was then stolen from us by the Author of the Journals. He hid it down here in the hopes of keeping it from me. But now I'm about to take it back and when I do, I'll be one step closer to fulfilling my destiny" he said, raising a clenched fist close to his face, his expression growing fierce and determined. But only for a moment, as he soon noticed the shackle that was still bound around his wrist. "And after that, I can start to figure out a way to separate us"

"Aw, but I was just starting getting used to this thing" Mabel said, with some mock disappointment. "It's like having an extra Siamese-Voodoo-doll twin chained up to me"

Vincent let out a slight grin at her comment. "Well I suppose you've gotten a little less unbearable as time went on. Who knows, maybe I might actually get used to having you around"

Mabel smiled broadly at Vincent's statement and started to nudge him in the shoulder. "You could say, we've really grown _attach_-"

As swift as a gust of wind, Vincent quickly placed his finger over Mabel's lips, abruptly silencing her. "Do. Not. Go there. Way too easy". Releasing her lips, Vincent turned back to the path in front of them and continued to trek onward through the catacombs, Mabel walking right alongside him. They walked together in complete silence, the only sounds being the echoes of their footstep or an occasional drop of water splashing somewhere in the distance. They had been walking for nearly five minutes without much change in scenery and without much talking either, the golf sized ball of light hovering over them. Vincent had elected to remain silent throughout the trip, his eyes only focused on what was directly ahead of him. Once again feeling the unbearable sense of boredom wash over her, Mabel decided to take matters into her own hands.

"What's your favourite colour?" she asked.

"What?" Vincent said, turning around to look at her, not breaking his pace.

"Your favourite colour" Mabel repeated. "You do have a favourite colour don't you?"

"Why are you asking me that?" he said, seemingly confused by the randomness of her question.

"Well, I just figured that I don't really know that much about you" Mabel said. "As a person, you know? I mean I know you secretly like space stuff, but since we're still going to stuck together for another while, I thought that maybe we can talk a little about ourselves to pass the time"

Vincent sighed and shook his head. "Mabel, I don't have time for any more games" he said wearily.

"No, no! This isn't a game" she said quickly. "This is just…. two people making some friendly conversation, because they happened to be chained up together. Tell you what, I'll go first"

"Mabel, I don't-" Vincent began, but she didn't give him the chance to finish.

"Hi. My name is Mabel Pines" she said. "I'm twelve years old, but I'll be turning thirteen by the end of the summer. I'm from Piedmont, California and I'm staying here in Gravity Falls with my Grunkle Stan. I have a pet pig named Waddles that I won at a fair and who I love more than anything else. My two best friends in the world are Candy and Grenda. And my spirit animals are Xyler and Craz from the movie Dream Boy High"

"I'm sorry, your what?" Vincent said at that last part, but Mabel just pressed on.

"I've have had at least six major love interests this summer, all of which ended in heart break but I like to think I'm stronger for it. I'm a natural born artist, but like all great artists, I'm heavily unappreciated in my time and my work. My greatest ambition is to one day bedazzle the whole world. My biggest fear is losing my cuteness. My favourite food is pancakes with whip cream and toothpaste. My first word was Unicorn. I'm also five minutes older than my brother Dipper. I was made the first Official Congresswoman of the United States. I'm the inventor of my patent-pending Mabel Juice, the lead vocalists of Love Patrol Alpha and the six time Syrup Racing champion. And my favourite colour is the colour of everything!"

Once Mabel had finally finished her speech, Vincent just stared at her in silence, evidently at a loss for words. After hearing everything she had to say about herself, Vincent realised that Mabel had successfully trapped him in some kind of verbal prison, since he now couldn't help but feel obligated to offer her some appropriate repartee as a response.

"Okay, fine" he said, relenting. "My favourite colour is black. Big surprise huh? What else do you want to know?"

"Here's something I've always wondered" she said. "How does this cape thingy you have work? "

"Well for starters, it's not really a cape" Vincent said, holding up the corner of his black shroud. "This material is made from the skin of a special kind of snake that could hide from predators by turning invisible. But as it turns out, this wasn't simply camouflage. What the snake was really doing was shifting itself in and out of a pocket dimension by using its skin. So I stole…er, I mean _borrowed_ some of this skin and fashioned it into a cape for myself. And I use it to hold all of my magical paraphernalia and equipment. Which I also borrowed over the years"

"Can you put anything inside of it?" Mabel asked, grabbing a piece the cape and playfully phasing her hand in and out of it.

"Anything that I can fit under it" Vincent replied, yanking the cape away from her. "But enough about my cape. Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"

"This is something I've been dying to ask since we first met" Mabel said, sounding quite serious. "What is with the pony tail?"

Vincent blinked a couple of times before replying. "What…what do you mean?"

"Just curious. I mean, I can see you must have wanted to stick out from the crowd, but a pony tail? Really?" she said, gesturing to the back of his head.

"Wait, what's wrong with my pony tail?" Vincent said, suddenly alert. He reached a hand behind his head and began starting to fiddle with his hair, in an uncharacteristic display of self-consciousness. "It makes me look cool. Doesn't it?"

"Oh yeah, yeah" Mabel said, kindly patting him on the shoulder. "If that's how it makes you feel, then that's great. Appearances are never really that important once you've learned to ignore the gossip behind your back". Mabel continued to smile pleasantly at him and then turned her head back to the path ahead of them, oblivious to the indignant look Vincent was giving her. His hand still holding onto his pony tail, his face slowly turned into a small scowl as he glared at Mabel.

"Okay, anything _else_?" he said through his gritted teeth.

Mabel thought about this for a second before answering. "Where are you from exactly?"

"I'm not really _from_ anywhere" Vincent shrugged, secretly eager at the topic change "My family originated from some place in Eastern Europe almost 400 years ago, but then we moved to the New World around the time it started to prosper. My grandfather had bought a house for himself here in Gravity Falls and made it his permanent resident. That's also where my Dad lived and grew up, but eventually he left home against my grandfather's wishes"

"Why did he leave?"

"He left because of my Mom" Vincent answered. "See my Dad was a pure blood vampire, as in he was born as a vampire. But my Mom on the other hand, she was a turned vampire. See in my family we usually only marry another pure blood vampire. It's this whole idea about keeping human blood out of the genepool. Plus turned vampires are kinda frowned upon in some circles. They're generally meant to be used only as servants or minions that do our bidding, but that was until my Dad met my Mom. She was still a human when they first met. Dad always told me that he fell in love with my Mom at first sight. And then my Mom would tell me that she led him on for the first week".

Vincent chuckled a little, remembering how his father reacted to that part of the story. He hopped over a large stone that was laying in the middle of the ground in front of him before resuming his tale.

"Anyway, they dated for a while, but he didn't tell her he was a vampire at first because he thought she'd freak out. Eventually, he finally worked up the courage to admit what he was to her. Rather than being appalled, the only thing my Mom had to say to him, was if he would make her a vampire too, because she couldn't imagine a life without him in it anymore. So he did as she asked and then decided to get married. Of course my grandpa wasn't too thrilled that he's only son married a turned vampire, so they ended up eloping. Classic fairy-tale stuff I guess, huh Ma-?"

Vincent abruptly came to a halt when he felt his arm being yanked backwards, which was enough to tell him that Mabel had stopped moving for some reason. Turning around to look at her, Vincent almost jumped back in fright once he saw the bizarre look that Mabel was giving him. Her hands were clapped together in front of her face as her lower lip was quivering. Her eyes had widened out a disturbing number of inches over her face and were glistening with so much joy and emotion that it's a wonder they didn't burst open any second.

"That is the most romantic thing I've ever heard!" she whispered in a soft yet barely restrained voice.

"Okay. Um could you please stop doing that with your eyes?" Vincent said, leaning his head as far back away from her as possible.

"I don't think I can" she whispered, her voice still trembling. "I think my face is stuck like this forever"

Seeing this an unacceptable outcome, Vincent did what needed to be done and pinched the side of his cheek. Mabel let out a small exclamation and rubbed her own cheek in response, while giving Vincent a slightly vengeful look as he resumed walking again.

"So, what happened after your parents left?" she asked.

"It's pretty obvious what happened" Vincent replied mildly. "I was born"

"You were born?" Mabel repeated.

"Yes. I was born" Vincent said, now sounding a little impatient. "You want to me to draw you a chart on the subject?"

"No!" Mabel said at once, looking terrified. "Grunkle Stan already did that". She let out a brief shudder, still struggling to suppress that particular conversation. Recomposing herself, Mabel decided to change the topic.

"Where did you and your parents live?"

"We moved around a lot so we never stayed in one place for very long" he said. "One time we spent a week in Rio and another time we lived all the way up in the Alps. And once we went camping inside the Grand Canyon"

"Wow" Mabel said in amazement. "That sounds like a lot of fun"

"It was, but it was also kind of hard making friends that way. We had to live in secret most of the time, because we didn't want the Abendroth family to know where we were. But that didn't bother me too much. I was always happy when I was with my family"

"What were they like?"

"My dad was an easy going type, but level headed enough to know when to take responsibility. Mom was the strict one. Boy, it was not good idea to get her mad. Seriously, lives would be lost on those days. But she was also kindest person you'd ever met. Ah, those were the days" Vincent closed his eyes and smiled contently as he remembered. "Just me, Mom, Dad, and…."

It was in that instant, Vincent suddenly stopped talking. His eyes shot wide open and his mouth shut tightly. He grimaced slightly, as though angry with himself for making some grievous and embarrassing mistake.

"And what?" Mabel asked, unperturbed by his sudden reaction.

"And, uh, my grandfather" he replied, recovering quickly. "Yeah, yeah, he would come to visit us a lot. But of course, he really only came to try and talk my parents into letting me go live with him so that he could train me on how to use my powers. They'd argue for ages and ages, but my parents would never say yes. They wanted me to grow up in a….less _strenuous _environment"

"What made them change their minds?" Mabel asked.

"What?" Vincent said.

"You said before that you were living with your grandpa at his house. So why did your Mom and Dad change their minds?"

"They didn't change their mind" Vincent said, casting his eyes downward, his tone becoming heavy. "They died"

Mabel gasped in shock, putting her hands over her mouth, instantly realising what she had just done much to her horror.

"After they were gone" Vincent continued. "I had nowhere else for me to go, so my grandfather took me in. He made me work endlessly on developing my powers so that I would be ready to take our mission. Then later, he died too. Leaving me alone

"Oh Vincent, I'm so sorry" Mabel said, with the deepest amount of sincerity and regret possible. "I didn't mean to-"

"Its fine" Vincent said curtly, waving a dismissive hand at her. "It doesn't matter if you're sorry or not. That's just how life works. Sooner or later, everything you love and care about disappears forever, leaving you behind with nothing. May as well get used to it". At his feet, Vincent kicked a large rock at was in his way with an excessive amount of force, sending it bouncing off in another direction.

"Do… you at least have a photo to remember your parents by?" Mabel said, her voice close to breaking.

"We're vampires" he said grimly. "We can't take pictures of ourselves because we have no reflections". Vincent glanced sideways at Mabel, seeing the heartbroken expression etched across her face, and sighed heavily. "Look, Mabel no more talking ok? We're don't have that much farther to go now. Let's just keep moving"

Mabel opened her mouth to speak again, hoping something would come out of it, but she fell silent. She face dropped to a frown as a huge vein of guilt welled up inside her stomach. She felt terrible with herself for speaking so carelessly and without though, indirectly upsetting Vincent as a result. Despite everything else that had transpired between the two of them, amazingly, the only thing Mabel wanted to do now was find a way of cheering him up again, but she was having difficulty at seeing how she might lighten up the situation after her previous comment.

She sighed heavily, feeling even more disheartened than before. Dejected, she started looking around the tunnel, hoping to find something to give her inspiration. She gave a brief glanced backwards, but then she spotted something strange, that was only barely visible within reach of the light provided by Vincent's floating orb. She squinted her eyes, trying to make sure she was in fact seeing what she was seeing. She turned back to Vincent, who still had his eyes focused ahead. Quickly getting an idea in her own mind, Mabel face slowly broke into a wide smile. She thought carefully on what to do next and it was then she formed a brilliant (and definitely not stupid) idea. Swinging her arms forward and thrusting her legs up, Mabel, without any premediated warning, broke out into song.

"_Oh, we're marching through this tunnel! This is our tunnel marching song. This next line ends with the word funnel. Boy this trip feels really long. Oh, we're marching this tunnel. This is our tunnel marching song!"_

"What are you doing!?" Vincent snapped incredulously at Mabel before she could sing any further.

"I know, I know" she said plaintively. "The lyrics _are_ perfect but we're gonna have to work on the tune a little before we have something serious"

"Mabel, please stop messing around" Vincent said in an almost begging tone of voice as he rubbed his eyes wearily.

"Well, we can't be a marching band without a song can we?"

"Marching band?" Vincent gaped at her.

"Well, yeah" Mabel said. "That's the most logical conclusion I came to when I noticed how you were making all those rocks follow behind us"

Vincent finally stopped walking, having become too dumbfounded to continue on without an explanation. "What are you talking about?"

"Those rocks" Mabel said casually, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. "The ones that you're moving behind us with your mind powers"

More confused than after, Vincent turned his head back down to the path where they just came from. And that's when he saw what Mabel was talking about. On the ground, about ten feet away from them, several large stones, each one about the size of a medicine balls, were literally rolling right across the floor of the tunnel, seemingly being propelled by nothing but their own momentum. They were moving at a slow, but eerily consistent pace and heading directly for them.

"Um, Mabel?" Vincent said, with a sudden sense of caution. "I'm not doing that"

"Oh really?" she said, looking back at the rolling stones with a pleasant smile. "Well that's terribly foreboding".

Having no idea what was happening, but every one of his instincts screaming that this was a sign of trouble, Vincent turned on his heel and was about to try and go forward, but stopped once he saw another cluster of rocks coming from the opposite end of the tunnel ahead of them. Glancing back and forth between the rolling stones, Vincent and Mabel cautiously shifted closer to one and another, remaining within a fixed spot directly underneath the orb of light which was now hovering stationary above their heads

The rocks finally came to a stop just within the reach of the light, while the rest were hidden in the shadows, making it impossible to say how many there were. For a long moment there was nothing but silence. Both Mabel and Vincent shared an uneasy glance with each other, neither of them making a move in any direction.

One of the rocks then rolled a few inches forward, coming into full view underneath the light. The rock then began to shake and rattle on the spot, like something was trying to pushing its way out of it. A number of cracks appeared along its exterior, growing deeper, until four spider like appendages sprouted out from either side of the rock and planted themselves firmly on the ground. The front of the rock split open and with a high pitch shriek, the head and neck of a snarling, reptilian like creature burst its way out from it, staring right at Vincent and Mabel who gaped back it with a mixture of shock and revulsion

The creature's head was small, about the size of a baseball, with a long, gangly neck, that drooped low in the middle and had pale grey skin. Its mouth was tiny, but was also lined with four pincher like fangs that made a strange clicking sound. Its eyes were black and beady, and glistened sinisterly in the light. The rest of the creature body appeared to be still inside the rock that it had just come out of, which covered it main torso, like a kind of grotesque turtle shell. It limbs were long, thin and rigid, each one with a set of three pronged claws at the end, acting as its feet.

Soon, the rest of the stones within the cavern did the same as the first, each one cracking open and turning into another reptilian creature whose chittering noises filled the entire tunnel. And every one of them now had their eyes firmly set on the two intrepid travellers' that were now caught right their mist, with the same kind of gaze a predator has when they've cornered the prey.

"Aah! What are these things?!" Mabel exclaimed, moving behind Vincent.

"I don't know, I've never seen anything like them before" he replied, his eyes focused on the snarling creatures, readying himself for an imminent attack as they slowly began to inch closer and closer toward them.

"Don't suppose there's any chance that they're friendly?" Mabel said, sounding half hopeful. One of the creatures seemed to respond to her question by letting an aggressive hissing noise in her direction

"I would not recommend petting one" Vincent said dryly

"What do we do?" Mabel asked anxiously, watching as the creatures had them surrounded on all sides.

"I know this is will be very, very hard for you" Vincent said in low whisper, standing almost stock still. "But do _not_ panic or make any spontaneous movements. Just let me handle-"

"GRAPPLING HOOK!" Mabel's voice resounding through the tunnel, as she reached in behind her back, pulling out her greatest weapon and firing it upwards to the roof of the tunnel. She put her right arm around Vincent's waist and pulled him in closer much to his surprise. She squeezed the trigger of her gun once again and together, they zoomed up toward the ceiling, just in the nick of time. A second after they had zip lined away, the pack of rock creatures simultaneously pounced right at them, narrowly missing their legs as they ascended upwards and colliding into a huge dog pile.

The grappling hook stop just a few inches from hitting the ceiling, leaving Mabel and Vincent to dangle up there like glorified chandelier. Down below, they saw the creatures still piled onto one another, some trying to jump up and bite at them, but unable to reached. For a few seconds it looked like they were. But the problem with a few seconds is that it only lasts a few seconds. The creatures quickly remobilised themselves and started moving toward the walls of the tunnel. They dug their claws into the solid rock as if it was mere putty and latched onto the surface of the wall with ease. They scaled the walls, heading up toward the ceiling. Suspending themselves upside down, hey literally started walking across the roof of the tunnel, converging on their prey once more.

Now it was Vincent's turn to grab Mabel's waist. Swinging his legs back and forth, he gained enough momentum to propel the two of them forward, dislodging the grappling hook from the roof of the tunnel just before the rock creatures could reach them.

As soon as they touched solid ground, Vincent took Mabel by her hand and pulled her into a run back down into the passageway. Not needing any extra incentive, Mabel ran along Vincent without hesitance, the orb of light zooming to keep up with them. Back behind them, the creatures dropped down from the celling to the floor and soon gave chase, their hungry, chittering cries echoing down the cavern.

"This way! Come on!"

Vincent and Mabel ran as fast they're legs could carrying them. Vincent briefly thought about picking Mabel and flying the rest of way, but this idea was no longer an option once he saw what up ahead. The roof of the tunnel started to drop by several feet, forcing to crouch lower to the ground. After that, the tunnel became much narrower, barely even a single abreast apart. Vincent and Mabel had turned sideways as they slipped in through a tight crevice, trying to move as fast they could with what little room was available. They toppled out from the crevice where the tunnel had now become much wider. They started to run forward, when Vincent paused as he suddenly got an idea.

"Wait, wait" he said to Mabel. Facing the passage way, Vincent raised his hands and clapped them together. The tunnel began to shake violently, like an earthquake had struck. There came a loud boom from the down the tunnel and another shake, then a huge cloud of dust shot up into the air. Coughing slightly, Mabel waved the dust out of her eyes. Opening them again, she saw that the passage they had just come through was now gone, having collapsed into a pile of rubble, leaving no way to slip through.

Releasing his breath, Vincent gave turned back to Mabel, giving her a reassuring thumbs up. The smiles soon faded from their faces however when they heard a strange crunching sound, emitting from the other side of the cave in. The noise steadily grew louder, until a piece of the rubble broke loose as one of the creatures burst its way out through the debris. Tiny chunks of crumbled of rock fell from its mouth as it was chewing through the surrounding stone. The rest of the rubble soon began to shake with the rest of the creatures already eating their way through

Watching this display with utter disbelief, Vincent and Mabel quickly resumed running, nearly doubling their pace from before as they headed even further into the tunnel. They were running so fast that the orb of light was left trailing behind them, giving only enough light to see just a few feet ahead at a time. Because of this, Vincent, being able to pierce through the darkness with his superior eyesight, was keeping a sharp eye out for what was in front of them, so that they wouldn't end up hitting a dead end. It was then that he saw something up ahead of them that made skid to an immediate halt However Mabel, unable to see what through the darkness as he could, continued to run blindly forward.

"Mabel, wait, stop!" Vincent's warning came a second too late. Mabel took another step forward and suddenly felt the ground disappear underneath her foot as she stepped off the edge of a sheer drop that appeared out of nowhere. Moving fast, Vincent pulled on his end of their chain and spun right around on his heel, bringing Mabel back to his side of the ledge. Panting with shock, she peered over the ledge to see a bottomless chasm below her.

"What now?" Mabel said, already hearing the creatures fast approaching from behind. "Can you fly us over to the other side?"

"I can't see where the next passage way is. Wait. Over there!" He pointed at something to the far right in darkness. Vincent led Mabel along the ledge, being careful to slip off. Once close enough, Mabel could see that they were heading for a small, narrow bridge that extended over the gap, leading to another passageway. Making it to the bridge, they raced across it as fast as possible. However, the rock creatures soon caught up with them and were now right on their heels, swarming across the bridge after them.

Once Mabel made it safely over, Vincent jerked his hand back toward the bridge, firing another telekinetic attack, which broke its structural integrity, causing to start collapsing under its own weight. The rock creatures were already half way over the bridge when it finally gave way underneath them, crumbling to pieces and sending the creatures plummeting below.

Mabel sighed in relief, thinking for sure that they were in the clear this time, but Vincent wasn't as optimistic. He took one look up toward the high roof of the cavern and he could see more of the creatures crawling across from the other side

Grunting with frustration, Vincent grabbed Mabel's hand and zoomed off further down into the tunnel which seemed to be go on endlessly. They weren't sure how long they had run, when they finally came to stop within a much bigger cavern area.

Unable to run any further, Mabel leaned up against a nearby rock, completely out of breath and gasping for breath, feeling more exhausted now than she ever remembered feeling her whole life

"They…..just…..keep…coming!" she said in between her gasps. "What now?"

Vincent didn't answer and was now rummaging his hand inside of his cape. "Hang a second, I think I might have something in here that can that stop those things. Just have to-" Whatever Vincent to do, Mabel never out. At that very moment, one of the creatures dropped down from above and latched itself onto his shoulder. With a startled cry, he grappled with the creature, trying to shake it off, but it held on tightly.

Mabel backed away from the scuffle, unsure of what do or how she could help. She looked wildly around the cavern for anything that might be of use when she spotted a broken stalactite (or stalagmite, whichever the case may be) laying on the ground. Picking the piece of rock up in her hands, Mabel swung it around hard, like a baseball bat, knocking the rock creature right off Vincent's shoulder, while narrowly missing his head in the process. Taking a short gasp for air, Vincent turned his head toward Mabel and gave a short nod of his head in gratitude

However his mood quickly went straight back to panic once he reached up to his collar and realised that his cape was missing. Knowing that it must have come loose while he was grappling the rock creature that had jumped onto his shoulder, he looked to the other side of the cavern in direction Mabel had sent it flying. Sure enough, he saw the creature getting back up again, his cape tangled up in its leg.

However before he could make any attempt at getting it, more rock creatures started to drop down from above, like a shower of small meteorites. Soon the entire cave was filled them, as they once again surrounded Vincent and Mabel. There was now so many of them, that Vincent could no longer see the one which had his cape, hidden within the sea of scurrying little legs, and without being able to see it, he couldn't summoned toward him with his telekinesis

"We have to get my cape back. But looks like we're gonna need to get a little dirty first" he said, raising his fists up in the air, readying himself for battle. He gave a short glance to Mabel. "You think you handle this?"

Mabel snorted into the back of her throat and let loose a copious piece of spit, while tightening her grip on the stalactite in her hands. "I haven't had a bath all day" she said, in a tone so gruff and deep, that it would have done Grunkle Stan proud.

Without waiting for so much as bell ringing, the rock creatures sprang forward, charging together in one big herd, going for either Vincent or Mabel.

One of the rock creatures leapt up at Vincent who effortlessly knocked it away with a solid right hook. Another one jumped up from behind, but Vincent took it out with a backwards thrust of his right leg. Beside him, Mabel was swinging the broken stalactite around with a very surprising amount of physical ease as she swatted away the creatures as they jumped at her. They fought like this for several minutes, doing all they could to keep the swarm of creatures at bay, but their number seemed to have no end. Whenever they took one out, another one would always pop back up in its place.

After a while, Mabel was beginning to feel her stalactite grow heavier in her arms. She glanced to her side, to check on Vincent who was fighting two more creatures at once, managing to throw them off. But he was too preoccupied with them that he didn't notice the third rock creature approaching from his blind side

"Vincent, duck!" she yelled. Vincent did as she said and ducked low to the ground as one of the rock creatures flew right over his head and into the path of Mabel's next swing. He was about to say something back as thanks when he saw another creature coming from behind Mabel

"Mabel, go left!

She sidestepped to her left hand side, just as Vincent ran forward and kicked the creature away.

"Your right!"

Mabel stepped again to the right, dodging yet another creature who leapt toward Vincent. He ducked down and caught the creature by its hind legs, before swinging it back around to Mabel, who promptly disposed of it with another strike from her bat.

"Home run!" she cheered. They saw a cluster of three or four more creatures coming at them, with another one coming from the right hand side. The two of them shared a quick with each other and without saying a word, they both knew that they were having the exact same idea the other was having.

They shifted closer to each other, going shoulder to shoulder, making themselves as easy target as the nearest one of the creatures leapt up at them. Just before it hit, they separated from one another and held their chain high up in the air, which caught the creature right in the middle of it. Moving in unison and keeping up with the momentum, they flung their chain forward like a sling shot, firing the creature straight into the larger oncoming group, knocking all them down.

Despite the life and death stakes of the current situation, Vincent and Mabel took a moment to share a solid high five with one another, feeling embolden by their success. It was then threw the mist of the chaos, did Vincent spot his cape, still tangled up around the leg of one the rock creatures at the far side

Putting his arm around Mabel's waist, he leaped up high into the air, doing a small flip across the carven and landing on the rock creature's back, where its legs gave way under the extra weight. Vincent wasted no time removing his cape from the creature's leg and then tossing it away to the nearest wall. His cape back in hand, he resumed his earlier search for whatever item he planned on defeating these creatures with, while Mabel continued to cover his back.

Unfortunately, no one was left to cover Mabel's. From out of the shadows, one of the creatures jumped, three sets of razor sharp claws scrapped Mabel across the side of her leg, just above her knee. With sharp cry of pain, she dropped her stalactite and fell to the ground, clutching her wounded leg. A second later, Vincent felt the same pain reverberate in his own leg, the shock of which was enough to make him topple over as well.

Now that she was incapacitated, the creature that had attacked her climbed up on to Mabel's chest, pinning her arms down before she could try to move. Vincent was about to get up and help her, when he felt something pull at the back of his head. A second creature had appeared and caught the tip of Vincent's pony tail in its mouth, trying to tear it off like a piece of meat. Vincent tried to pull his head forward, but the creature had dug its claws into ground, anchoring itself in place. Vincent could now do nothing but watch as the other creature raised its head directly above Mabel's, preparing to strike.

Realising what he had to do and knowing he had to protect Mabel, Vincent reached up behind his head with both hands, grabbed the back of his hair and with one solid twist, he ripped his ponytail clean off. The rock creature behind him tumbled backwards, with Vincent's pony tail dangling in its mouth. Now free, Vincent got up and ran over to Mabel, seconds before the creature bite down on her head. With one solid, thrust of his leg, he kicked the creature under its belly and sent it flying across the cavern.

Picking his cape back off the ground, Vincent reached and within less than a second, he pulled out a small, metal disk roughly about the size of a hockey puck. He pressed a button that was in the centre of the disk, which soon began to flash and beep loudly. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the disk up into the air. Putting a protective arm around Mabel, he flung his cape over their heads like a huge tarp, allowing them to vanish into the pocket dimension within. The remaining creatures all stopped in their tracks and looked on at the spot when their quarry had disappeared from, chittering in confusion. On perfect unison, they turned their necks upwards to the falling disk that was still in the air. The disk was now flashing even faster until….

**KABOOOOOOMMM!**

A huge blast of fire erupted throughout the catacomb, disintegrating everything for at least a mile in any direction. When it was all over, the only thing left in the tunnel was thin layer of sizzling soot covering everything and the skeletal remains of the rock creatures.

After another five seconds waiting, Vincent popped his head from underneath the cape, checking for any signs of life. Seeing that the coast was clear, he pulled himself back out from the cape, along with Mabel, who was holding onto his arm. Vincent surveyed the destruction of the tunnel, making definitively sure that they were no longer in any danger

Eventually he let out a huge sigh of relief, feeling totally exhausted after that entire ordeal. "I think we're safe now. Looks like that took out all of them" he said, nudging at some pieces of bone with his foot.

It was then that Vincent noticed felt a sharp and stinging pain coming from his right leg. Mabel was laying down the ground, clutching her injured leg. Upon closer inspection, Vincent could see a nasty gash from the rock creature had struck with its claws. A small trickle of blood was dripping from the wound and onto the ground.

Kneeling down beside her, Vincent sniffed the air, the familiar scent of blood filling his nostrils. Despite himself, Vincent couldn't help but start to grow a little hungry from the smell, although he realised that this as probably not the most appropriate time to think about eating. He pressed a finger down on Mabel's leg, probing at the wound, which caused her to flinch away from him in pain.

"Hold still" he said, grabbing her by the shoulder to keep her from moving as he continued to examine her injury. "It's not as bad as it could have been. The cut itself is still pretty shallow"

"Still hurts though" she said wincing slightly as she tried to stand up again, but fell back down when she tried to put weight onto her wounded leg. "I don't know if I can walk like this. Hey, what are you doing?"

Vincent picked up his cape once again and passed his entire arm inside the dark fabric. A moment later, he pulled a small glass vial, filled with a strange, yellow substance. He undid the lid of the vial and scooped up some of the sticky goo with his two fingers

"Hold still" he said, as he applied the cream to Mabel's leg, rubbing it against the wound and around the damaged skin. Mabel was about to protest to what he was doing, when she felt a warm sensation spreading up and down her leg. Within less than a minute, the sensation was gone and so was the pain. She watched in amazement as the cut slowly began to disappear as the skin knitted itself back to together When the sensation was gone, Mabel saw to her amazement that the cut was now completely healed. Vincent offered a hand which she graciously accepted as he helped back to her feet, where she found, much to her pleasant surprised, that she could stand again without any trouble.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"Y-yeah" she said slowly, bouncing on her leg a little. "Thanks. What was that stuff"

"Just something I keep on hand" he said, placing the jar back inside his cape. "I, uh….I always liked to be prepared"

"My leg's completely better now. This is amazing. That was…..that was really nice of you" she said, looking immensely grateful.

Vincent stared at her and much to his shock, saw that she was actually beginning to blush a little. He quickly cleared his throat and turned away from her gaze, trying to feign a mask of indifference to her appreciation. "Well, uh, yeah. Your pain is my pain too. Can't afford to have you slowing me down or….anything"

Despite his attempts at curtness, Mabel continued to beam warmly at him, which only served to make him feel even more uncomfortable. Clearing his throat once again, he made an excuse that they should keep moving, now that they were safe.

"What do you think those rock, turtle thingys were?" Mabel asked, as they resumed walking down into the catacomb, suddenly feeling very curious on the subject. She then let out a dramatic gasp. "Did turtles and rocks learn to love, marry and have precious mutant babies?!"

"Possibly" Vincent said, indulging her slightly. "But my best guess would be that those creatures must have been some kind of prehistoric species that hibernated deep below the earth's surface for millions of years, and then at some point, they must have been accidentally awakened by the Underlandtians. Guess now we know what it was that wiped them out"

"Well since we discovered them, I guess it's only right that we name them too" Mabel said happily. "That's makes us their parents!"

Vincent couldn't help but roll his eyes at her suggestion. "How in the world does that _possibly_ make us their-"

"I know. We'll call them Rocktapolis Turtlenoid Invaders from Dimension 9 and a half! No, wait, how about Rick Roller Fellas? No? What about….?"

"How about….Stonebursters?" Vincent said, cutting over Mabel before she could come up with anymore names.

"Stonebursters" Mabel repeated. "I like it! And best of all it doesn't sound like it's copyrighted. By the way, sorry about your pony tail" she said, pointing to the hair at back of his head, where his hair now had a much sharper cut, looking a lot shorter. "But you know what, it kinda look better"

"Really?" he said, patting the back of his head. "To be honest, I wasn't really sure what it looked like what I first tried it out, since you know, I can't myself in the mirror" he admitted sheepishly.

"That's why it's always good to have an outsider's opinion. Trust me, you look great. Except…" Mabel licked her two fingers and then brushed one of Vincent's bangs out from his forehead, up to his fridge. "Now, you look great". She then began to eye him with a kind of professional scrutiny. "Now if we could just work on your complexion"

Caught off his guard, Vincent broke out into a fit of laughter which Mabel soon join in. After they had calmed themselves, Vincent looked at Mabel with an odd stare, with something close to guilt. For a moment he looked as though he wasn't sure how best to proceed before finally opening mouth again. "Hey Mabel" he said, clearing his throat slightly. "I'm, uh…..I'm sorry too".

"It's okay" Mabel said. "It wasn't your fault I got hurt back there"

"No, I mean, I'm sorry about your dance competition" he said. "You mentioned before that you were going to go dancing later tonight, but now you're going to missed it because you're chained up to me. So, I'm sorry about that. It…. It wasn't my intention to ruin your day. So, I'm sorry" he said, sounding much more sombre

Mabel briefly appeared so stunned by his statement she didn't know how to respond. But her face quickly changed into her usual happy smile. "Hey, one thing I've learned this summer, it's that you'll never know what kind of day you're gonna end up having. Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow. That's how fishes live such rich and fulfilled lives because they don't look back. Because they don't have a necks! I choose to live my life necklessly!"

She lowered her own neck right into her sweater, while making her eyes look off in two different direction, rather effectively displaying exactly how much she valued a fish's sense of lifestyle. Vincent chuckled once again, finding it increasingly impossible to predict what she was about to do next.

"Besides" she said, pulling her neck back out of her sweater. "Hanging out with you hasn't been so bad

"Yeah" Vincent said, feeling immensely surprised by the fact that he actually found himself agreeing with what she was saying. "You know, I certainly wasn't expecting to spend my day with you of all people. It's been quite the experience and if don't mind me saying, you were pretty impressive back there. You've been a really big help. I guess it's nice to have, um…well to have someone you can rely on. Like a partner"

Mabel felt her checks starting to blush again, feeling somewhat embarrassed by Vincent's praise, for reasons that she wasn't entirely certain of. She was about to try and compose some kind of reply, but soon fell silence when she looked up ahead to see that they had finally reached the end of the tunnel

* * *

**So next chapter will be the last part. A lot is gonna go down. Dipper and co. are on the way, while Vincent and Mabel are about to face something a lot worse than what they've just been through. And for those wondering, we have not seen the last of the Stonebursters. And yes, I did steal that name from Aliens as well as something else that you can guess**

**Anyway, hoped you enjoyed the chapter and please leave a review**


	32. Seperation and Reunion

**Hey, I'm not dead. Is….is everyone else dead? I know, seven months. Long time, but a lot of things have happened to me since then. Going through work, family, study and just general procrastination. It didn't help that this turned out to be so damn long, as I found myself adding more and more to. I'm beginning to feel that I'm putting too much detail into things and that it'd be easier if I keep the chapters shorter, which the next few definitely will be.**

**Anywho, here we go**

* * *

"Well, this is it fellas. MacAngus Well" Old Man McGucket declared. Once they had finished up their business at the library, McGucket kept true to his word and led Dipper, Stan and Soos to the site of the famous well, located far out in the woods. It certainly wasn't much to look at. Nothing but a lump of half toppled bricks covered in grime, a broken roof made of wood and a bucket dangling at the end of a piece of rope

"We hiked all the way out here for this broken down old well?" Stan said grumpily, kicking at the one the fallen bricks. "Don't see what's so special about this thing. Doesn't look like anybody even uses this thing as a wishing well neither" he said, picking up the empty bucket. "That's too bad"

"Was there a wish that you wanted to make Mr Pines?" Soos asked.

"I'd normally just wish for all the coins in the well" Stan replied, nonchalantly tossing the bucket to the ground. "Figures this is what we get when we decide to follow the crazy old hillbilly" he said, jerking his thumb to McGucket.

Ignoring his Grunkle's complaints, Dipper ran his eyes over the crumbling pile of bricks and motor that was once a working well, trying to find anything noteworthy or any sort of clue that might led to finding Mabel.

"Don't tell me this is just another dead end" he said, doing his best to hide the growing sense of desperation in his voice. "There has to be something, anything here that could point us in the right direction. Everyone, start looking for clues". He pulled out his flash light and began scanning the ground, in the hopes of finding some footprints or track

Stan, looking very disinterested in what was going on around him, just stood where he was, absently taking out a small candy bar and eating it. Old Man McGucket moved up beside him and began staring at the broken well with a melancholy expression.

"It's pretty a sad story really, what happened to ol' MacAngus" he said aloud. "An old man everybody believed to be nothing but raving crackpot. Truth is, I find I can relate to that. Looking back on my life, or least what I think I can remember of it, what have I really accomplished? Living alone in a junk yard, a son that wants nothing to do with me and the broken pieces of mind that I can just barely keep together. Sometimes I wonder. With what little time I have left, do I still anything of value left to offer to this the world? Would anyone see me as more than just the crazy hillbilly?"

Stan stopped chewing his bar and glanced sideways at McGucket just as he finished his speech. "Boy, you look pretty down there Old Man McGucket. Guess I should offer you some words of encouragement, but I tend not to exert any more needless effort than what I have to on lost causes. That, and I wasn't really listening either"

"Oh dudes, check this out! I found a clue". Soos suddenly reappeared among the group, holding up a single strand of red string in his hand. "A small piece of wool from one of Mabel's trademarked sweaters. Further scientific and needlessly extensive, cool visual effect analyse may tell us more". Soos stared at red string with a completive look, sniffing at it. After studying the string for a long while, Soos brought it closer to his own mouth. He paused when he noticed Dipper looking at him. "Would it be considered too weird if I ate this?"

"Soos" Dipper replied very wearily, pointing to the piece of string in his hands. "That's not wool. That's an old Twizzler"

Soos blinked in surprise and eyed the string, realising upon closer inspection that it was indeed just a Twizzler. "Soooo, would that make it _less_ weird if I ate it then?" he asked, almost sounding as though he was asking for permission.

"Knock yourself out" Dipper said dismissively, turning attention back to the stone well. Satisfied, Soos promptly chunked the expired candy into his mouth and chewed it up

"By the way" he said, mouth half full. "I also found this huge hole in the ground that goes down for like a mile, up past those bushes there. Wanna spit down into it and see how deep it is?"

"Wait, what?" Dipper said, turning back around.

Soos shallowed the Twizzler in his mouth. "Should I have lead with that one instead?"

Without wasting anymore time, Dipper, Stan and McGucket quickly followed Soos through the surrounding brush and sure enough, they came upon a very large and deep, circular shaped hole in the ground, right in the middle of a large clearing. At the far end of the clearing, was an upright piece of stone, sticking out of the ground in front of the hole.

"Oh no!" Stan said, his eyes widening in shock at the sight of the massive hole in front of them. "It can't be! Do you realise what this means!? There's another bottomless pit that I don't own. I can't afford the competition. I'll have to respond the only appropriate way I know how. Sabotage. Soos, quick! Fill up this bottomless hole with an infinite amount of dirt" Stan paused for a long moment as he considered the plausibility of his own statement. "Or maybe just put a tarp over it or something. Whichever applies more to the laws of physics"

"Something tells me this isn't a _bottomless_ pit" Dipper said, peering down into the hole. He brushed his fingers on the side of the hole, which felt incredible smooth. "The ground along the edges looks pretty clean and the sides look really smooth, like it was made only recently." He leaned in closer, but then accidently dropped the flashlight in his hands which fell down into the blackness before. After a few seconds, Dipper heard the faint echo of what sounded like something smashing against the bottom.

"Okay, there is no way that this a coincidence" he said, getting back to his feet. "If there really is an underground city hidden out here, then this must be the way to it"

"Great" Stan said sarcastically. "But just one slight problem. How the heck are supposed to get down there?"

"If we had long enough rope and a strong enough tree, we could climb our way down" Dipper said, while taking out his Journal and writing down some calculations.

"What if we tied some mattresses to ourselves and jumped down?" Soos suggested.

"That's stupid" Stan said. "I say we put on some parachutes and hope for the best. That or we could just dig our way down"

"OH! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!" Behind them, Old Man McGucket suddenly started jumping up and down, waving his arms and whooping excitedly in an imitation of a monkey.

"McGucket, you have an idea?" Dipper asked him.

"Oh, oh, oh!" McGucket abruptly stopped his jumping. "Sorry bout that. The human part of my brain just temporarily regressed back into the primal state of a pre-evolved ape. It does that sometimes. Oh, but wait. Now I have an idea!"

"Oh, this oughta be good" Stan said, rolling his eyes with contempt. "Don't tell me, you're gonna spout some random, nonsensical hillbilly slang about stuff like hankering hobo hoedowns or possum bladder waxing?

"Possum bladder waxing?" McGucket repeated, actually freaked out by the term. "Now that just sounds wrong. But what I was going to suggest that we could use this"

McGucket pulled out a small black object from inside his beard and then pressed down on it. A moment later, the ground beneath them around them to shake as if an earthquake had just struck. The shaking continued to intensify and the ground then suddenly erupted in an explosion of dirt, as the head of a giant, monstrous worm-like creature burst up from below. Its face was nothing but a huge round mouth lined with a dozen rings of razor sharp teeth, snarling viciously. Its neck was the size of a train and was undulated in the air like a snake.

Dipper, Stan and Soos let out a terrified scream as the monster descended down upon on them. However, the worm slowly came to a halt in front of McGucket, laying down to rest beside him. Jets of steam hissed out from the sides of the worm, as a metal hatch popped open, revealing a hollow interior.

"Um, McGucket, what exactly is that?" Dipper said, overcoming his earlier fear and pointing at the gargantuan worm that had just appeared, as though it could somehow be any less obvious.

"That?" McGucket said, casually jerking his thumb back to the worm. "Oh this is just my giant mechanical tunnelling worm robot that I put together over the weekend. See I don't engage in much social activity and rather than deal with my personal shortcomings in a healthy manner, I compensate by building weapons of mass destruction. Anyway, I figure we could use this to explore the underground terrain and maybe we'd find that there ancient city you're looking for. Or we could go cruise the town and pick some chicks with this bad boy" he added, patting the metallic side of the worm.

While he wasn't too sure about how well that second suggestion might work out, Dipper did make a quick mental note of potentially following it up later….. for obviously non-hormonal related reason. But right now he was more interested in the first part of McGucket's offer.

Walking past him, Dipper climbed his way up through the hatch, leading him inside to the interior of the worm, which was constructed like a large cockpit. The front of it was lined with several control panels and leavers, as well as a driver and passengers' seats, all of which looked to be built mostly out of junk and duct tape. Soos quickly followed after Dipper. The only one that did not rush in to the mechanical worm was Stan, who was glaring at the robot with hostilely.

"Grunkle Stan, what's wrong?" Dipper asked him.

"What's wrong?" he exclaimed indignantly. "Well for starters, I have this bad creak in my lower back and my ulcer has been acting up again. But that's beside the point. You seriously want us to get into this crazy contraption that was haphazardly put together by a guy who doesn't even know what year this is?"

"I'm about fifty percent sure, that we're somewhere in the_ sneventy_ digit" McGucket said, scratching his head thoughtfully.

"Forget it, I changed my mind" Stan said, crossing his arms stubbornly. "I say we go with Soos' mattress idea. The mattress shop doesn't have a lot of security. All we got to watch out for is that Mattress King guy. I think he actually _lives_ in there"

"Grunkle Stan, come on" Dipper pleaded, descending down from the open hatch and walking up to Stan. "I know this is hard to believe, but McGucket is actually a genius. Well, I mean, he _was_ a genius, but then he lost his mind with a memory erasing gun he invented. But I'm starting to think he's really beginning to regain his sanity"

"He's eating his own foot" Stan noted with some disgust as he watched McGucket absently trying to stick his entire foot inside his mouth. Though this did not do wonders for credibility, Dipper remained focus on the issue.

"Grunkle Stan, I'm asking you to trust me on this. Can you do that for me?" he asked sincerely.

"No" Stan replied bluntly.

Dipper blinked once and then scowled slightly. "Fine. Then will you at least do it for Mabel?"

Stan groaned heavily. That was one argument he couldn't counter or evade. "Fine" he said. "But only on the condition that I'm fully entitled to preventively gloat by saying I told you so, during any and all moments where things look like they're about to go bad. Deal?"

"Deal" Dipper said. Satisfied, they shook hands in confirmation and then made their way inside the cockpit of the worm. They took their seats alongside Soos, who already had his seatbelt on. McGucket took up the driver's seat at the front, flicking switches and pulling levers as the internal mechanics of the worm started to whirl to life.

"Everybody strapped in?" McGucket asked, adjusting his controls. "All right! Let's go!"

"We're on our way Mabel" Dipper said, suddenly brimming with confidence. However this was soon replaced by a curious trepidation when he noticed that the control centre that McGucket was sitting in had no visible screen to view what was outside of the worm.

"Hey, uh, McGucket?" he asked. "How exactly are we supposed to see what's in front of us?"

"That's a good question" he replied as he pressed a few more buttons

"Does it have a reassuring answer to it?" Dipper asked, half hopeful, half desperate.

"The answer is that I didn't think you'd need to put a window on a machine that travels underground. You wouldn't have a screen door on a submarine would you?"

"Haha, yes!" Stan cheered with triumphant at the sight of Dipper's now terrified expression, leaning back in his chair smugly. "I told you so! Aah, there are no sweeter four words in the English language. Almost makes up for the fact we're gonna die"

McGucket let out an insane shriek of laughter as he pulled back hard on the throttle, prompting Dipper and the others to start holding on for dear life. The worm sprang back to life and briefly raised its massive head up into the air, before slamming face first back into the ground, tearing its way through the dirt and rock, as began to burrow deep below the earth's surface

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else deep below the earth's surface, Mabel and Vincent had just reached the end of the extraneously long tunnel they had been trekking through for the past hour. Wherever they were, it was the biggest room yet as Vincent's orb of light was only able to illuminate a small fraction of it at a time. Mabel ran her eyes over the darkness around, trying to even make out the sheer dimensions of the room they were in.

"Hello!" she called out loudly, the only reply being her own echo. "Well hello to you too!" Mabel replied to her echo. "I'm Mabel. Nice to meet you, Echo Mabel. I can already tell we have a lot in common. Hey, don't talk over me! Let me-I said let me finish. Oh, real mature, just miming back everything I say. Well guess what? I'm flesh and blood, and you're nothing but sounds bouncing off walls, so you-"

Quick as snake, Vincent clammed his hand over Mabel's mouth. "Stop. It" he said curtly, already losing patience with the gag.

Mabel did as he said and fell silent once he released her. She resumed looking around the chamber for anything of interest when she spotted something on the wall beside her. Taking a closer look, she could see what appeared to be some kind of odd looking crystal embedded into the rock wall, but it looked so dim and lustreless, like there was no inherent colour to it. Staring at the grey crystal, Mabel was suddenly overcome by an almost irresistible compulsion to reach out and touch. She paused for a moment, thinking it may be dangerous. But the again she really, really wanted to touch it.

With a single finger, she tapped at the crystal. For a moment nothing happened, but then the crystal began to vibrate, emitting an odd humming noise. Then in a flash, the crystal lit itself up with in bright, blue glow. Soon, the same humming noise filled the entire chamber as dozens more of the same crystals lit up across the ceiling, like stars in the night sky.

Vincent surveyed the strange lights that had appeared in the chamber with some surprise, before casting a peculiar glance over to Mabel, who quickly tucked her hands behind her back and averted his gaze.

"I didn't do it" she said hastily.

Vincent merely rolled his eyes at her, feeling as though, at this point, he may as well be used to her antics, although, at very least he was pleased at the fact that there was now more light within the cave. Even though he could see in the dark, it was much easier for him to make out the finer details with proper illumination. He summoned his orb of light back into his hand and stowed away into his cape, having no further use for it.

With the chamber area properly lit, they could now see just how big it really was. On the opposite end of the chamber from where they had entered, was a huge, stone doorway. On either side of the door, were two giant statues, both equal in height to the door, craved out into the surrounding bedrock as ornamental pieces.

"This is it" Vincent said as they approached the doorway. "This must be the entrance to the city"

"Are we supposed to knock?" Mabel asked, running her eyes over the massive and immovable looking door in front of them, seeing no discernible way to open it.

"I'll do the knocking" Vincent replied, sounding a little cocky. Raising both hands, he gathered up his mental focus and directed it towards the heavy doors, intent on pushing them open, but soon ceased his efforts when he realised nothing was happening.

"What?" he said in surprise. "I can't move the doors. Why-?"

"IT IS TIME!"

A massive voice boomed throughout the chamber, the force of which was so strong, it shook the walls of the cave.

From either side of the door, the eyes of the two stone golems lit up in a flash of yellow light, bringing themselves to life. With a mighty tug, the golems ripped themselves free from their confinement, leaving behind two distinctively shaped imprints in the wall from where they had been. Now free, the two golems marched forward, the heavy thud of their approaching footsteps nearly knocking Vincent and Mabel to the ground. They stopped directly in front of them, standing shoulder to shoulder with their arms crossed, perfectly lined up with the door behind them.

"We are the guardians of the ancient city under the land" said the golem on the left. "For countless eons we have stood watch over this sacred the passageway, barring any who may seeks to defile our cherished protectorate. Who is it that dares to trend upon these most hallowed halls?"

"Hi" Mabel greeted pleasantly. "I'm Mabel. And this is Vincent"

"Well, Mabel and Vincent" the golem replied. "I am Golatar, the Unclenchingly Stoic, Victory of the Battle of Boludaira, the Ignenomanious Avalanche! And this…..is Phil" he added, pointing to companion.

"Sup" the golem known as Phil said, giving a slight wave to Mabel and Vincent.

"You have done well to come this far" Golatar continued. "But now you will face-"

"Wait, Phil?" Mabel interrupted. "That's his name?"

"Yes. Now we-"

"Why doesn't he have any cool namey things at the end of his name?" Mabel asked.

"An epithet" Vincent corrected her.

"Yeah, that"

Golatar glanced at his partner a little awkwardly before clearing his throat. "Uh well, thing is, he's actually my brother in law" he explained, dropping his accent and lowering himself closer to Mabel. "See, I sort of got him this position as a favour to my sister after my old partner got a different gig at some ancient Mayan temple down in Mexico. Apparently, they were a lot more popular with treasure hunters and his family wanted to relocate. Plus we don't hazard pay for this and our union is all over the place. It's….it's just a nightmare, you know"

"Huh, rough economy I guess" Vincent muttered dryly.

"Anyway, we usually need to do this long winded title thing as part of our introduction, just to keep up the ambiance and all, but Phil's résumé was a little shorthanded, so he doesn't have any impressive epithets to speak of. We try not to draw too much attention to it"

"Well, in that case, I'll give you an epithet" Mabel said, with a smile. "I shall name you Phil, King of a Thousand Epithets and He Who Has Really Big Fists That Punch People"

"Hmm, I like that" Phil said, rubbing his chin, sounding genuinely intrigued

"Ahem! Enough mindless banter!" Golatar said, resuming his earlier theatrics. "Heed our words young adventurers. You have done well to come this far in your quest for glory and truth. But this is moment where your fates shall tested as they collide against the stones of obstinateness. It is only by our unwavering will that this doorway remains closed and it may only ever open unless if we deem it so. If you wish to pass hence forth, to reap the rewards that lay beyond the threshold, then you must prove yourselves by battling and defeating the two of us in a duel. A duel of epic propositions!"

"Do you seriously need to do that voice thing every time?" Phil asked his partner in an exasperated tone.

"It's part of the routine. We've been over this!" Golatar snapped back at him

Down at their feet, Mabel gulped slightly as she stared up at the two bickering, granite warriors, not particularly liking her own odds in a fight with them. Vincent on the other hand just looked more irritated than concerned about the situation. He craned his neck from side to side and cracked his fingers outward, evidently thinking he'd have to do this by himself.

"Okay, step back" he said to Mabel, lazily strutting forward. "I'll handle this"

Golatar threw his head back with booming laughter at Vincent's show of confidence. "Ha! Fool! You cannot hope to face us alone. You will need the help and support of your partner if you wish to prevail in this endeavour. For you see, in order pass through this gate, you must defeat in an ancient contest of skill, speed and above all else, style"

Golatar nudged his head in Phil's direction. At his partners command, Phil produce a large, white crystal from behind his back. He placed the crystal on the ground and then clapped his hands together.

"Dance off bro!"

For brief second, Mabel and Vincent were fairly certain they must have heard him wrong, but what happened next proved that this was not the case. The white crystal began to vibrate just like the ones on the celling had done before, only this one seemed to be humming at a different frequency. In a dazzling display of light, numerous beams of colours shot out from within the crystal like spotlights, flashing sporadically in between different colours, leaving everything a multi coloured tint. For all intents and purposes, the piece of crystal had turned out to be an unconventional disco ball. And then to top it all off, it started playing music.

With a nameless, yet strangely funky song kicking off, Golatar and Phil both put their right legs forward and pointed one arm up in the air. Nodding their heads in time with the beat, they began to rhythmically shake their hips from side to side. Once the music reached its crescendo, they clapped their hands together and stamped their feet on the ground, as they unabashedly began what looked to be a highly choreographed dance number. And despite their rigid looking physique, they moved with a surprising amount of flexibility, bending their arms in and out at various angles, sliding almost gracefully across the floor, all in perfect, synchronised harmony with one another as though they had practice this performance a thousand times over.

Mabel and Vincent stared in unblinking silence at the two golems as they started to shake their backsides right in front of them. Vincent in particular, was left with his mouth hanging open, unable to produce any sound. He could do nothing but stare at the bizarre spectacle laid out in front of him, complete and utterly dumbfounded.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me" he said, with the hope that someone was about to wake him up from this nightmare he appeared to have found himself in.

Mabel, on the other hand, found herself in the exact opposite situation, her face breaking into a wide smile. This was a dream that she didn't want to wake up from.

"This….is…..PERFECT!" she cried in jubilation, bouncing up and down. "This is exactly the one thing I've wanted all day long. A dance off contest!" She glanced down at the shackle on her wrist, a manic grin forming on her face. "And I have a _partner_!" Mabel moved closer to Vincent and clutched his arm as tight as possible.

"Oh no!" Vincent said, moving away from her instantly. "No way! I am not dancing!"

"Come on, you heard them" Mabel pleaded. "If we wanna get through that door, then we gotta dance together!"

"Not. Going. To. Happen" he replied, crossing his arms in defiance

"We've come all the way here and you're just give up now?"

"It's not giving up" he said stubbornly. "I'll figure something else out, but there is zero chance of me dancing"

"But this is just like that story about those twos birds that got hit by the same stone and then they end up going to same emergency room together at the bird hospital, where they meet and fell in love over their mutual interest in pottery and bird seed"

Vincent stared back at Mabel in silence, no words in existence able to express his bewilderment at what she had just said.

"What I mean is," Mabel continued. "That it's not just about you getting what you want anymore. Now we can both get something out of this. Please, please, please just do this one thing for me?" she said, her voice as sweet as can be and her eyes looking like puppies.

Vincent, however, was completely unmoved at her plea. "Forget it!" he snapped at her. "If you think I'm going to debase myself by doing some ridiculous little dance routine, then you really are crazy. Some things are not worth your dignity and I will not-"

Vincent found himself abruptly cut off when Mabel seized him by the helm of his collar and pulled him right up to her face, looking more fierce and angry than he had ever seen her.

"Listen to me" she growled, staring directly into his eyes, her practically pressing into his. "I wanted _one_ thing and _one_ thing only today. To have fun dancing my butt off! But then you came in and messed it all up for me by getting me chained up together with you, and dragging me on this stupid adventure with you. I've spent my whole day running around, doing whatever _you_ wanted and now I have finally have a chance to do what _I_ wanted more than anything else today. And you are not gonna blow it for me again! Life has just handed me some lemons, so you get out there, shake your butt off and make me some, sweat, delicious lemonade!"

Once she had finished, Mabel took a steady exhale and released Vincent, who now looked much like a dog would be after receiving a sound scolding from its master. He gulped slightly and rubbed his arm, feeling very uncomfortable. He muttered something inaudible under his breath.

"You what?" Mabel asked.

"I don't know how to dance" he said lamely

"You don't have to know" she said, in more gentle tone of voice. "Just surrender your free will to the music! There's no need to feel embarrassed about it. I won't tell anyone"

Vincent groaned miserably and covered his face behind his hands. "Why can't anything go right for me today?"

Just then, the music finally stopped playing as the crystal ceased vibrating and returned back to its original white colour. Golatar and Phil had already finished up their routine and now addressed Mabel and Vincent once more.

"Tell me" Golatar said. "Are you hungry? I should hope not. You look as though you've been giving quite the plentiful portion of substance. One could say, we _served_ it to you"

"Three thousand years and you still use that same line" Phil muttered under his breath.

Golatar threw his partner an angry glare, but then return his gaze back to Mabel and Vincent. "Are you ready to try and match our skills? Or perhaps you are not up the challenge? Decide now. Either dance or leave here forever shamed, thereby allowing us the right to hypothetically talk in a disparagingly manner in regards to each of your respective mothers"

"Oh, you ain't talking that way about my mama!" Mabel replied sassily. "Give us a beat there Phil!"

Phil tapped the crystal again, which now turned a bright pink colour and started playing a new, more hip hop styled song than the previous one.

"Just fellow my lead" Mabel whispered to Vincent. "Get ready. I'm Mabel and this is Vincent and together we are the Cybernetic Bungalows!"

"I never agreed to that name!" Vincent said sharply.

Wasting no more time, Mabel raised her arms in the air, bent her elbows and began rocking her body out like crazy to the rhythm of the music, not caring if she looked silly or even if her dance moves were original. All she knew was that she was moving her body to the sound of music and that was all the satisfaction she needed.

Vincent on the other hand, could do nothing but stand where he was, rooted on the spot, feeling more embarrassed now that he ever dared to recall and wishing with all his might to be somewhere else right now. Seeing that he wasn't moving, Mabel shifted closer to him and bumped her hip into his as if to knock some of her own momentum into him.

"Do something" she muttered to him.

"Do what exactly?" he hissed back at her. "I can't think of anything"

"Don't think it. Just feel it"

Vincent groaned once again. Feeling incredible uncomfortable, he feebly kicked his feet a little, trying to do a very half-hearted little jig. Golatar and Phil merely chuckled at his efforts. Vincent squirmed, feeling even more embarrassed and covered his eyes

He hated this. He hated the situation that he was in. He hated how not one thing he planned today went the least bit his way. He hated everything about so it much, he that just tried to block out everything around him. Everything except for the catchy music blaring away in his ears, which he found impossible to drone out. In fact, he found that he could no longer think of anything but the music. That's when he noticed something. Opening his eyes, he glanced down at his right foot which was tapping itself against the floor like some kind of involuntary spasm. He then felt his own head beginning to nod in tandem with the music.

Although he didn't really understand the reason behind it, it seemed as though each one of his body parts wanted to independently move on their own. Realising that he had no better alternative, he decided to just go with it. Taking a deep breath, Vincent slowly released the tension in his shoulders and allowed his body to relax. Listening to the music and keeping his mind on nothing else, Vincent felt his arms raise themselves in the air, his elbows bending out and then slowly, his shoulders began rotating in clockwise movements, while at the same time, the rest of his body was moving from side to side, as his weight shifted back and forth between his two knees.

Mabel smiled at Vincent with approval once she saw him finally taking part and deciding to step up her own routine. Straightening up, she started jerking her arms and shoulders in fluid, wave like motions, doing her own variation of the robot. Growing more confident, Vincent rapidly shuffling his feet on the ground in a flurry of fancy footwork. Not wanting to feel outshone by him, Mabel changed her routine again by doing a backwards moonwalk. Vincent replied to this by jumping up and performing a hand stand. At this point, it seemed like they were more interested in competing against each other, if only semi-seriously.

"I'm gonna do a flip!" Mabel exclaimed abruptly. Spreading her legs out, Mabel jumped up in the air as high as she could go, confident that this would go a lot better than the last time she had tired it. And unfortunately, she was wrong.

Only managing to flip herself half way around, she was about to land face first on the solid floor, until Vincent quickly stretched out his arms and caught her by the waist. But instead of placing her back on the ground, he tossed her back up in the air again. He then gave a quick tug at his end of their chain, which flipped Mabel around in the air, before she landed back on her feet.

A bit shaken, but otherwise still excited, Mabel just laughed resumed her dance alongside Vincent, as they were now mimicking one another moves, while Golatar and Phil continued to silently observe them.

They were all so enrapture by the sound of the music, that none of them noticed the loud rumbling noise coming from somewhere above their heads. On the other side of the chamber, a section of the roof suddenly gave way, as the body of huge worm came pouring out from a hole in the ceiling, crashing into a heap on the floor. A few seconds later, a metal hatch opened up on the side of the worm and out from it, jumped Dipper Pines, who landed in the middle of the cavern, in an unnecessarily dramatic fashion, while striking an overly heroic pose.

"Don't worry Mabel!" he declared. "We're here to… rescue….you….". Dipper's voice trailed to a halt once he stopped and began to focus on what was in front of him. For a very long moment, he was sure that his brain must have somehow lost its capability to process visual images. That was the only rational explanation he could think of to explain why he was now looking at what appeared to be his sister and his mortal enemy dancing to disco music together, in front of two giant living golems.

After another few moments, Stan, Soos and McGucket disembarked from the worm as well and stood alongside a still stunned looking Dipper. Together they silently watched the display in front of them with an equal mixture of confusion, disbelief and surprisingly, even some embarrassment. Stan opened his mouth as if to try and say something, but after a solemn shake of the head from Soos, he closed it again.

Oblivious to the arrival Dipper and the others, Mabel and Vincent continued dancing, both of them now laying on the cavern floor and doing the worm together. Hopping back to their feet again, they stood back to back, their arms crossed and with gansta style looks on their faces, which served as the perfect photo finish for their performance. The disco crystal ceased its humming and returned back to its original white colour as the music came to an end. Though very exhausted, Mabel and Vincent none the less still had enough energy left to cheer and gave one another high five, which was then followed by a tight hug.

"WHOO!" Vincent exclaimed, detaching from Mabel again. "That was amazing. Almost makes we wish had an audience"

"Hey Dipper, Grunkle Stan!" Mabel said, turning around to wave at them as soon as she noticed their presence. "Did you see us dance?"

"Uh, yeah. You were really great sweetie" Stan called back, embarrassed, but still obligated to be supportive.

The enthusiasm quickly drained out of Vincent's face, replacing itself with the same stinging embarrassment from before as his whole body tensed up. Pulling his cape up to his face, he buried his head inside and let out an intense scream of frustration that was muffled into the fabric.

"Okay" Dipper said, recovering himself. "I have absolutely no idea what just happed and I never want to. So let me just start over from the beginning. Mabel, we're here to save you!"

Before Mabel had a chance to say anything back, they were all interrupted by the sound of Golatar's booming voice. "Well done young adventurers" he said, directly to Vincent and Mabel. "You're moves were considerably overweight and your skills may even suggest progressive aliment. But more importantly, is the fact that you were able to relay on one another as partners and together, showed trust in the face of uncertainty. You have passed our test. You may proceed"

Golatar and Phil bumped their stone fists together. Behind them, the huge stone door swung open, revealing a long winding road leading down into another catacomb.

The instant he saw the doorway open up, Vincent didn't spare a second thought as he grabbed Mabel by the arm and took off in a run for the door.

Seeing the two of them on the move again, Dipper quickly broke into a run to try and catch them before they made it through, but he was forced to a stop when Golatar and Phil side stepped in to block his path. Once Vincent and Mabel had made it past the threshold, the door swung closed itself shut again, with an echoing thud.

"Halt!" Golatar said, raising his hand. "You have not earned the right to pass through the gateway"

"Please, that's my sister" Dipper said desperately. "You got to let me in there!"

Golatar opened his mouth to respond, when to his surprise, Phil suddenly spoke up in his place. "Your cries of despair fall upon deaf ears, insolent fool!" he said, adopting more operatic tone of voice. "We are the guardians of the gateway of the ancient city under the land and none but the worthy may pass. So says I! Phil, King of a Thousand Epithets!"

Soos let out a sustained gasp. "A thousand epithets? It can't be! Do we dare challenge the gods themselves?"

"I am so proud of you" Golatar whispered to his partner, barely containing the emotion in his voice.

Clearing his throat, Stan straightened his tie and brusquely approached the two golems with a dubious look in his eyes. "You sure there's nothing that we can say that might make….look the other way?" Stan bent to ground and picked something up in his hands. "Like say...a couple of nice looking rocks huh? Huh?" he said with an enthusiastic grin, waving the stones in front of them. "I'm kinda working under the assuming that this counts as bribe for you. Am I warm?"

Based on Golatar and Phil's unwavering expressions, he was not. "If you wish to pass, you must do as all travellers do" Golatar said. "You must dance off against the two of us and win. Now, each of you, choose your partner!"

Dipper shared a brief glance around with Stan, Soos and McGucket, all of whom were having more or less the same unpleasant thoughts pass through their heads. Taking one step at a step, Soos shuffled his way over to Stan in as nonchalant manner as possible and wrapped a beefy arm under his, staking his claim before anyone else could.

* * *

"Why'd you have to drag us away like that?" Mabel complained as Vincent led her down the tunnel. "I wanted to talk to Dipper"

"I don't have time to deal with your brother" Vincent said. "Not when we're this close"

"Close to what exactly?" Mabel said. "What is this… thing you want to find so bad?"

"It's the first piece of a very, very important and powerful artefact that my great-great grandfather discovered hundreds of years ago" Vincent explained as they rounded a corner. "It's been passed down in family from generation to generation. But thirty years ago, Stanford Pines stole it from my family and broke it up into three separate pieces in the hopes of keeping me from having it. I knew he left the clues to finding those pieces within his Journals. That's why I went after them in the first place. Once I got them, I deciphered the knowledge which has led me here, to where the first piece is hidden"

"Wait, wait, wait" Mabel said, struggling to keep up. "Grunkle Stan stole something from you?"

"No, I said _Stanford Pines_ stole something from me" Vincent replied.

"Yeah and that's my Grunkle Stan" Mabel said slowly.

"No, he's not" Vincent said bluntly.

"I don't understand" Mabel said, her confusion evident.

"It's not important" Vincent said. "But I will say this. There may soon come a time when you'll find out that your Grunkle Stan is not what he seems to be"

Mabel was about to follow up with another question but then held back her tongue when she was suddenly hit in the face by an incredible wave of heat. They had reached the end of the tunnel, which brought them into another huge cavern and at the bottom of which was a molten pit of searing hot lava. Suspended above the lava, was the ruins of an ancient city, being held aloft by a stone pillar that stretched up from out of the volcanic rock. The ceiling of the cavern hung low over the city, with many large stalactites hanging up above the buildings. Extending out from the end of the tunnel, where Mabel and Vincent were standing, was a small bridge, over the lava pit, leading into the city.

"Underlandtis" Vincent declared, with some sense of grandeur in his voice.

"Ooooh, I get it" Mabel said with sudden realisation. "It's like Atlantis, but it's underground. That's clever"

"Not really" Vincent replied. "Let's go"

They crossed over the bridge and through a ruined archway, entering the middle of what must have been the town square. Despite the obvious bits of destruction here and there, coupled with some vine overgrowth, the city looked incredibly well preserved. There were more white crystals scattered about the along the streets, some of them attached to the walls, acting like street lights. Another odd thing was that there were several circular mirrors, mounted on a series of plinths and the tops of buildings. Mabel glanced into a mirror as they walked past it, spotting her own reflection, as well as the odd sight of what happened to be an invisible person on the other end of her shackle.

"Now, all that's left to do is find that piece" Vincent said, surveying the area carefully. "And knowing _him_, he probably would have hidden it in the most arrogant place possible, like a giant temple or something"

"You mean like that one?" Mabel said, pointing to the aptly named building visible on the far side of the city.

"Seriously?" Vincent sighed, rolling his eyes sarcastically. "He couldn't have just hide it under a rock or something, could he? No, no. He just _had_ to be original and put inside the cliché giant ancient temple that's probably filled to the brim with deadly booby traps"

Mabel quickly covered her mouth, muffling a small snort into her hands. Vincent glanced at her and sighed again, somehow getting the idea that their troubles were far from over as they started heading for the temple.

* * *

Back at down in the tunnel, the stone gateway opened up once more, loud disco music blaring in from the other side as Dipper, Stan, Soos and McGucket came trudging out from it, none of them looking too thrilled.

"So, we're in agreement" Dipper said, the door closing behind him. "We will never speak of this again to anyone"

"Uh huh" Stan agreed.

"Ditto" Soos said

"I'm already warming up the memory gun" McGucket said.

Already beginning to pretend that particular little hurdle never occurred, Dipper focused his attention on the path ahead of them. Hurriedly moving down into the tunnel, it didn't take them long before they came upon the ruined city that was once Underlandtis, situated over the pit of lava.

"Whoa" Dipper said, barely able to restrain his excitement and wonder as they crossed over the bridge into the town, taking in the sights around him. "Normally, I'd be freaking out over all this, but first things first. We should start looking for Mabel"

"Now, now, let's not be too hasty" Stan said, putting a hand on Dipper's shoulders. "This is after all an important archaeological discovery, that I have led to believe is also made of gold. Let's take a moment to breath it all in. We should be grateful. We're the first people to be here in centuries, which means we gotta loot as much as we can possibly carry before those nerds with the weird hats show up and cart everything off to a museum".

That had gone pretty much exactly where Dipper was expecting it to go. Deadpanned expression, he watched as Grunkle Stan approached the wall of the nearest building he could find and greedily starting rubbing his hands over it. Though this wasn't exactly unexpected, it definitely wasn't the most productive direction for them to go right now.

"Grunkle Stan, we don't have time for looting" Dipper began. "We need to-"

"Dipper, what have I always said?" Stan interrupted, turning away from the wall. "Time is money. So, uh…...I don't know, think of some clever play on words to go with that. I do it myself, but I don't have the time or the money. Besides, from the looks of things, there's only one road out of this ghost town". Stan indicated back to the only visible bridge which connected the city back to the tunnel where they had entered from. "They gotta have to come back this way when they're leaving. Let's just wait here till they show up again"

"I guess that make sense" Dipper said, in all honesty finding that to be a good argument.

"Also, dude," Soos said. "Just like, bringing this topic back into circulation, but even if we find Mabel, how exactly you gonna separate her from Vincent, if they're still wearing those shackle things?"

"I…. didn't really think that far ahead yet" Dipper admitted guiltily. He paused as he began to consider what could be done about freeing Mabel.

"Hey, McGucket, do you think you might have anything that could remove a set of mystically enchanted manacles? McGucket?" He turned his head in McGucket's direction but only then did he noticed that he had disappeared from the group. Dipper looked around wildly for any sign of him. "Hey, where'd he go?"

"Who cares where that crazy old coot went?" Stan said, unconcerned, as he pulled out a small hammer and chisel from inside his jacket. "All I know is, he led us right to a goldmine. Or town? I don't know, the second word isn't the one I care about. Now, come to papa!"

Lining up his chisel to the wall, Stan banged the hammer down at the tip, creating a clean crack in the wall. Then in a matter of seconds, the crack spread out across the wall which then collapsed in on itself, leaving behind nothing but a pile of rocks at Stan's feet.

"Huh" he said, after a short pause, nonplussed over his apparent lack of success. "Okay, no gold. Maybe this is the cheap side of town?" Stan glanced around for another building, but then jumped back with fright when the head of Old Man McGucket's suddenly popped out from the man-sized hole in the wall that he had just made.

"Hey fellas, come looke here what I found!" he said, beckoning them inside the building that he had inexplicably found his way into.

His curiosity aroused, Dipper stepped in through the hole after McGucket. The room he had entered was completely dark, save for the light coming in through the hole. Beside him, McGucket held something up in his hand.

"Watch this!" he said. McGucket tapped his finger to the object in his hand, which began to hum and then lit up like a light bulb. The room was suddenly lit up by a dozen more lights, which were coming off a number of strange glowing crystals embedded in the walls and scattered on the ground.

Now that he was able to see, Dipper began to examine in the interior of the room he was in. The first thing that stood out, were the rows upon rows of massive shelfs that filled up the room. Inside the shelfs, were stacks of stone tablets, each one about the size of a book, stacked up together. The tablets looked to be inscribed with words, written in some unreadable language. There were also some bigger tablets hanging off the walls, covered with pictures and illustrations like paintings

"What's this place supposed to be?" Stan asked aloud, stepping through the hole, followed by Soos. "A public bathroom? That's not a quip, I actually have to go"

"This looks like some kind of archival or library" Dipper said, picking up one of the heavy tablets off a shelf, blowing away some of the dust.

"Then what's with all the glowing rocks?" Stan asked, indicating toward the crystals.

"Pretty cool huh?" McGucket said, showing off the crystal in his hands. "From the looks of it, the sub atomic matrix of these crystals seem to resonate with certain vibrational frequencies which trigger an internal release of florescent light"

"Plus, they double as cool vibrators" Soos said, picking a crystal off the ground. "My mind is racing as I think of the sick and deranged fantasies I could fulfil with these". With a look of guilty pleasure, Soos lifted the front of his shirt up and placed the crystal on his belly, giggling with delight as the folds of his fat started to ripple.

Visibly grossed out at his handyman's display of self-indulgence, but his interest peaked nonetheless, Stan bent down to pick one of the crystals and examined it with scrutiny.

"Forget the gold" he said. "Glue some broken glass on one of these things and you got a mildly safe, yet cheap substitute for an electric razor! Or maybe one of them glow in dark sticks teenagers wave around at parties. Pretty sure, there's a third semi good idea in there somewhere…"

As Stan pondered the possible lucrative opportunities he could exploit of this, Soos continued playing with the crystals on the floor, sticking some them inside the waist band of his shorts. McGucket, on the other hand, had walked over to a larger tablet on the wall that caught his attention, one with a number of hexagonally shapes over what looked like picture of a city.

"Hmm, interesting" he said, pulling out his broken pair of glasses and beginning to study the mural with an air of professional interest.

Dipper, meanwhile, continued exploring the rest of the room by himself, away from the others. In the back of mind, he knew that he should be thinking about how to help Mabel, but for the moment he couldn't help but take the opportunity to indulge himself in a little mysterious intrigue, now that he had the chance.

As he wandered through the room, he came upon three sets of stone pedestals, standing out an equal distance from one another, each one holding up a different object. On the first pedestal, nearest to the wall, was one of the stone tablets standing upright on a small perch. The second, middle pedestal had a round, flat top, with a large green crystal sitting in the middle. This crystal, however, appeared to be of a different colour and variety than the ones providing the light. Finally, the third pedestal had a circular mirror held up on a mounted platform, pointing directly at the crystal.

Approaching the pedestal with the mirror, Dipper ran his hand over the back of it and noticed a small indentation. Slowly forming idea in his head, Dipper picked up one of the glowing crystals off the floor and placed it into the back of the mirror, which fit perfectly. A huge shaft of light shot out from the mirror lens, like a spot light, focusing itself onto the crystal on the second pedestal. Moments later, a needle thin laser came out from the crystal and cut a vertical line clear on the stone tablet. Amazed, Dipper moved over to the second pedestal, watching in wonder at the laser beam steadily hovering in the air. Taking a closer look at the pedestal, he noticed that the top half appeared slightly loose, like a plate. Glancing back to the mirror, the laser and the tablet, Dipper put it all together. Rotating the top of the pedestal, the crystal moved a few degrees to the right and the angle of laser changed, now cutting a horizontal line into the tablet.

"This is incredible" Dipper said to himself, rotating the crystal laser again, creating more patterns on the tablet with each turn. "Whoever built this place, must have used these crystal things to crave messages into these stones. I wonder if this where the shrinking crystals I found in the woods came from?"

After he had scribbled over the whole tablet, Dipper was eager to try that out again on another tablet. He spotted one that was lying right next to the lectern pedestal and picked it up. However, he stopped when he noticed that this tablet already had been inscribed with writing. But unlike all the other tablets Dipper had seen, this one was writing in perfect English.

Astonished, Dipper took a closer look at text, hastily beginning to read it. "Wait a minute" he whispered. "I know this sentence patterning. I don't believe it. This was written by the Author of the Journals!" Dipper pulled out Journal#3 and quickly started to copy down the message word for word. Once he had read through the entire message, his eyes widened with horror as processed what this meant.

"Oh, this is bad" he said. Getting to his feet, he ran back to the others, who were all still occupied with their own vices. McGucket studying the tablet on the wall, Stan pocketing some crystals into his jacket and Soos, sticking some more down his pants and shirt. "This really, really bad. We have to find Mabel. And we need to stop Vincent, right now!"

Not sharing his sudden sense of distress, Soos was about to reply with a question, but then quickly forgot it when he saw something strange over Dipper's head that caught his attention. "Oh, hey dudes check it out. A bunch of stones rolling by themselves. Huh, can this day get any weirder?"

* * *

"Well that wasn't as bad as I thought I would be" Vincent said, giving Mabel a helping hand up, just as he climbed the last few steps of the stairway leading to the top of the temple.

"Yeah, I was expecting a giant boulder or something" Mabel replied, nearly out of breath from their excursion. "Feels a little anti climatic this way"

"Well, after everything else we've gone through to get here, I'm not complaining" Vincent said, taking a moment to look out over the top of the temple. From this vantage point they could see the entire city of Underlandtis sprawled out in front of them, in all its former glory and splendour. It was an impressive view which also furthered Vincent's sense of satisfaction, considering all the hardships he and Mabel endured to reach this point. "This has been a long trip"

Turning away from the city, Vincent now looked around to see what exactly was the top of the temple. They had climbed so high up that they were almost able reach the ceiling of the cavern, the apex of the temple nearly brushing against the tip of a implausibly huge stalactite that was situated directly above it. The roof of the temple itself was completely flat and empty, save for one small bump in the very middle. The bump was in the form of square shaped plinth, raised up out of the ground. Resting on top of the plinth was a small, black coloured cube, made of some unknown material, with a crimson dot in its centre.

The instant Vincent laid his eyes on the cube, he rushed over to the plinth as fast as he could, not giving Mabel any heads up before he started moving. Standing at the edge of the plinth, his eyes were focused on nothing but the strange cube. It was as if he almost couldn't believe that it was really right in front of him. With bated breath, Vincent slowly reached and clasped the cube in both hands. For a moment, he held it up in the air, with a kind of reverence.

"_That's_ what you came all this way for?" Mabel said, staring at the odd cube, unable to see its significance. "What's it do?" She reached out to touch the cube, but Vincent instantly pulled it away from her.

"Don't touch it!" he snapped, clutching the cube protectively. "You couldn't possibly understand how important this is to me."

After meticulously checking the cube to make sure it wasn't damaged, Vincent placed it within his cape dimension and then let out a long sigh of relief. "Just two pieces" he whispered to himself, with a mixture of anticipation and hope. "Just two pieces more to go and everything will finally be ready."

Having no further business, Vincent and Mabel made their way back down the stairs, which proved to be a much easier trek then it had been on the way up. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, they crossed the open courtyard of the temple, passing by the giant obelisk in its centre. More of the same mirrors they had seen throughout the city were periodically positioned along the sides of the temple

"So now that you have your cube thingy, what happens next?" Mabel asked, as they walked down the main road leading away from the temple.

"We'll go back to my house and I'll start looking for a way to get this chain off us" Vincent said. "I don't know about you, but I'm not too keen on making this a permanent thing. Don't worry, I'll figure something out. After that, we can go our separate ways again and you can go back to your normal, everyday life without me bothering you"

"Well you know, thing is, I've been thinking" Mabel said, coming to a sudden halt. "When I first met you, I thought you just an evil, creepy pasta face, jerk-head, zombie-dummy-butt that wanted to suck up of all my bodily fluids with a straw"

There was a brief paused as Vincent let this assessment of his character sink in. "I'm assuming you're going somewhere with this?"

"But, after all the time we spent together today, you really don't seem like you're that bad of a person. You're actually pretty nice" she said, with a sweet smile. "So, I was thinking, after we get out of these chains, we could maybe, hang out sometime? Like as friends."

"Friends?" Vincent repeated, with a voice of deep scepticism.

"Yeah!" Mabel said, with a voice of sincere optimism. "I mean, we had fun together today, didn't we? We could go star gazing, or midnight jogging or some other activity that happens after sunset? Maybe do some bird watching and you can eat any dead ones?"

"Mabel, I don't think that would a be good idea" Vincent said, sounding weary once more.

"Oh, come on, we had a lot fun together didn't we?"

"Well, yeah" Vincent said, trying his best to sound modest. "I'm not saying this whole..._thing_ with you wasn't fun. It was. But, I don't think we could really do this again afterwards. It won't really work"

"Why not?" Mabel asked.

"Well, because it…." Vincent paused as he searched for the most appropriate response. "I…don't think your brother would like the idea of you hanging out with me"

"Well, you're right" Mabel admitted sadly, but then almost immediately perked up. "Which means the only solution we all hang out together!"

"Again" Vincent said testily. "I don't think that'll work. I think your brother wouldn't really be interested in being friends. Also, I kind of hate him. Like, a lot. Like I wanna punch him in the stupid face whenever I see him"

"Okay. That might be a problem" Mabel said, awkwardly. "But seriously, you two could get along great if you had the chance. You just need some common ground to stand on. Which in this case can be me! Just let me do the talking and in the end, I'm sure we can all be-"

Mabel was abruptly cut off mid-sentence by a chorus of bloodcurdling screams. Rounding the corner up ahead, Dipper, Stan, Soos and McGucket came running straight toward them at full speed, yelling their lungs out. Without so much as a pause, they ran right past Mabel and Vincent, who could only watch them go by with equally confused expression. But then they took one more glance up ahead and soon realised what the cause of their distress was. A swarm of Stonebursters were crawling down the street and over the buildings, coming right for them in a tidal wave of grotesques legs and snapping teeth.

Now it was Mabel and Vincent's turn to start screaming. They took off as fast as they could, soon catching up with Dipper and the others, who were all heading arriving back in the temple's courtyard Before they could make it any further, Soos tripped at own his feet and tumbled to the ground. One of the dozen crystals he still had tucked down into his pant and shirt popped out, flying through the air and landing perfectly right into a small opening in the middle of the giant obelisk. Once the crystal was inserted, the obelisk hummed to life, glowing with the same blue energy as the crystal before firing out a single, concentrated beam of light.

The beam struck at one of the mirrors facing its direction. The beam was then reflected to the next mirror and then to next. Soon they created a network of beams surrounding the entire temple. The blue energy of the beams then started to expanded outward, creating a walled barrier around the temple. The Stonebursters collided headfirst with the barrier, which kept them from advancing, their bodies pilling up outside of it.

Although none of them were entirely sure what in the world had just happened, Dipper and the rest of the group were none the less happy for the momentary sanctuary from the Stonebursters, who were now trying to claw their way through the barrier, but so far unable to penetrate it.

"Is everybody ok?" Dipper asked, after catching his breath. Everyone gave back vague sound off to indicate their health.

"Good, good" Dipper said, beginning to relax himself. It took him another second before he remembered that Mabel and Vincent were now standing right next to him. In an instant, he went straight from clam to back alert once more, dramatically thrusting his finger directly at Vincent.

"Back away from my sister!" he exclaimed.

"I _can't_, you moron!" Vincent said, through his gritted teeth.

"Realised it as soon as I said" Dipper replied without missing a beat. "So, to rephrase, step the maximum distance you can from her, right now, or else!"

"Or else what?" Vincent said aggressively, advancing on Dipper. "Are you actually going try and make me?"

"I don't know" Dipper said, holding his ground against him, unflinching. "Why don't you tell me!?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down now boys" Mabel said, positioning herself between Dipper and Vincent, who looked ready to tear the other one to shreds at the drop of a hat. "Let's not get hostile. We're all friends here"

"No, were not!" Dipper and Vincent said in unison.

"Okay, so we're not _exactly_ friends" Mabel admitted. "But there's no need for us to be enemies either. We're all conveniently trapped right, so how about we all just talk this out a little and I'm sure we can work this out"

Dipper gaped at his sister, looking more aghast than usual. "Mabel, this is the guy who kidnapped you and lured us into an underground city filled with spider monsters! This whole mess his fault!"

"My fault?!" Vincent said angrily, pushing Mabel out of the way and accosting Dipper once again. "You're the one who caused this. If you had just left me alone back at the library, none of you would even be here! You involved yourself in this"

"Well it's a good thing I did" Dipper said, just as angry. "Because now I know what you're up to and I'm not letting you get away with it. I know that you came here to find a secret relic that was hidden down here by the Author and I won't let you take it. Just as soon as I figure out what it is exactly" he finished, offhandedly.

Before Vincent realised what she was doing, Mabel unabashedly picked up the back end of his cape and pulled out the cube he had placed in there earlier.

"You mean this thing?" she asked, holding up the cube.

"That's it! Mabel, quick, give it here!" Dipper lunged for the cube, trying to pull it out of Mabel's hands, however, Vincent reacted just as quickly and wrapped his hand over the cube at the same time Dipper did.

"Get away from that!"

Dipper and Vincent were now both struggling pull the cube out of Mabel's grasp, who was unable to let go of it herself, own hand caught underneath their opposing grips.

"Hey, knock it off! Quit fighting!" Mabel said, as she was being pulled back and forth by Dipper and Vincent. Three of them fell to ground and were wrestling against one another for possession of the cube. Meanwhile, Stan, Soos and McGucket, none of them being particularly responsible adults, just stood where were and watched the three kids scuffling around at their feet.

"Should we try and stop this?" McGucket asked, uncertain.

"Eh, let them vent a little" Stan said, waving his hand. "It's healthy, and also mildly entertaining. Besides, what kind of catastrophic harm ever came from a little heated disagreement?". Stan paused after saying this, certain traumatic memories now flooding back to him. "Then again, on second thought…"

Unfortunately, whatever thought he wanted to complete came too little too late. Vincent finally managed to push Dipper off, sending him hurtling into the mirror nearest the obelisk, hitting his back off it. The mirror spun on its axis, changing the trajectory of the beam. With the circuit of beams now broken, the shield surrounding the temple disappeared, allowing the Stonebursters to start advancing on them once again.

The mirror's beam cut across the ground, until it struck right between Mabel and Vincent, blasting the cube out of their hands and piercing straight through the metal chain binding their arms together, shattering it into pieces. The cube flew off into the air and landed somewhere deep in the city.

Stan, McGucket and Soos, dropped to the ground as the energy bolt, which had bounced off the cube, now ricocheted over their heads. The bolt continued to bounce around several times, before hitting a mirror slanted upwards, firing the bolt directly into the giant stalactite hanging above the temple.

Every single one of the Stonebursters suddenly stopped in their tracks, each of them looking up toward the stalactite, like an animal that had just spotted its natural predator. Moving in perfect sync, they curled themselves back into their ball forms and quickly rolled away, dispersing out of sight.

"At the risk of tempting fate here" Soos said, after a cautionary moment of silence. "I'm gonna assume that this means we're in the cle-"

Soos abruptly fell silent when a deep, rumbling sound began emitting from the stalactite above their heads. "Oh boy, gun officially jumped, huh, dudes?"

Craning their necks up, they saw the base of the stalactite beginning to crack, as it if was going to fall to the ground, but unfortunately, what happened next was nowhere near as mundane. Four, monstrous spider legs, each the size of a tree truck, sprouted out from the stalactite and dug their talons into the cavern roof. The legs pushed themselves up, revealing the hideous underbelly of a giant, queen sized Stoneburster, carrying the stalactite as the shell on its back. The Queen's drew out its elongated neck, revealing its bulbous head, covered in jagged horns in the same shape of a hideous crown. Its dark, furious eyes soon focused down on the Pines family below and then out a deafening roar that rattled the entire cavern.

"Alright, good news" Stan said, after the noise that died back down. "I don't need the bathroom anymore."

Vincent, still shaken after being hit by the mirror beam, pushed himself back up, alongside Mabel, who was just as groggy. Groaning, he raised his hand to his head and then to his surprise, he saw the broken chain now danglingly at end of his shackle. Before he could do anything else, the rest of the shackle shattered itself, breaking off his wrist as tiny shreds of metal.

It only took moment before the full realisation of what this meant sank into Vincent's mind. He glanced over to Mabel, rubbing her now liberated wrist, and then up to the monster Queen hanging off the ceiling. Finally, he looked over to the distance, to where the cube had bounced off. Thinking very fast on what do to next, Vincent shared one last glance with Mabel, looking her dead in the eye. Then he got to his feet and ran.

Mabel watched him go, without giving her any kind of final acknowledgement. Just leaving her behind and speechless at the unceremonious end to their, for lack of a better word, relationship

But she didn't have the time to dwell on that. With an earth-rattling thud, the Queen jumped down from the ceiling and landed on top of the temple, beginning to claw its way toward them. Now it was back to running and screaming.

Dipper quickly pulled Mabel back to her feet and together with Stan and the others they ran back into the city, the Queen hot on their trails, her footsteps nearly big to knock over the building in her path. Catching up to them, the Queen pulled her neck back and snapped her teeth down at the group, forcing them to split apart at the last second. Dipper and Mabel took cover in behind an alleyway, while Stan, McGucket and Soos hide underneath a small archway. Momentarily losing sight of her prey, the Queen continued stalking the area with clinical patience of a hunter.

Breathing hard, Stan peeked out from the archway, first checking to make sure Dipper and Mabel were safe over on their side of the street and then to watch where the Queen was going, getting ready for the next opportunity for them to make a break for it. As he scouted the situation, Stan felt something tugging at his arm. Turning around, he saw that it was McGucket, who was jumping up and down feverishly.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh!" he said, pointing over to another, larger obelisk situated in the middle of a town plaza, surrounded by more mirrors.

"What, your brain change the channel to monkey again?" Stan asked.

"No, no!" McGucket said. "I have an idea! See, I couldn't help but noticed something peculiar about the geometrical displacement of all these mirrors around the city, almost like they were specifically designed to represent a series of polygonal intersections points. Then, when I was looking at that tablet thing back in the library place, I realised that this whole city's architecture was really systematic constructed to formulate a combination of refractory and reinforcement matrixes in order to multiply the exponentially of the natural crystalline based energy"

There was a long pause as Stan took all this in. And not understanding a word of it, and not just for a lack of trying for once. "I think I liked you better when you spoke hillbilly and not science nerd".

"What I'm trying to say, is that I think the Underlandtians were planning to use all these mirrors and these crystals as part of a defence system to protect themselves against those spider creatures. They were close, but they're math was just slightly off. I figured it out when I was reading up on the blueprints earlier. See, the energy from these crystals increases as they bounce off reflective surfaces, so if we can bounce them off enough mirrors, aimed at just the right angles, we may be able to create a strong enough blast that it would take that monster down"

"So, you're saying if we line up all these mirrors and bounce a laser beam off 'em, that'll kill the big bad monster?" Stan said, summing up as much as he could gather.

"Well, if we're being concise, then yes" McGucket nodded.

"And you sure that's gonna work?" Stan asked, half-heartedly holding back his scepticism

McGucket hesitated for a moment. "Well, I mean, I _think_ it will…...I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just being crazy again like usual. It's been so long, I can't really tell the difference, any more than I can tell the difference between things that are really small or really far away". McGucket suddenly went wide eyed and started gaping at the sight of his own hand. "My hand!" he said, pulling back and forth from his face. "It has the power to shrink!"

Stan groaned heavily as he watched McGucket's try to remember the concept of depth perception. He couldn't recall as having seen anything quite as pitiful. Well, except maybe himself. It would have been so easy for him to simply make another snarky comment, but then he remembered the giant spider monster that was currently hunting for them. Though it wasn't his best option, Stan decided that it may be the only chance he had at helping his family.

"Look, McGucket" he said, his voice becoming more stoic, getting McGucket's attention. "Maybe you are a little mentally ill, but if it wasn't for you we wouldn't have made this far. Truth is, I underestimated you. And if there is one thing I've learn, it's that the underestimated people are the ones who you don't suspect when someone breaks into your car and steals all upholstery. Now, I need you to pull that genius brain of yours together for at least five minutes and help me save my family".

Stan reached out and grabbed McGucket by the shoulders. "Come on, McGucket! I can't do this without you! We've have to be a team on this!"

McGucket stared at Stan with a blank expression. He blinked a few times and then his face hardended into a man of ambition and challenge. "Alright then partner, let's do this!"

"Great, whatever" Stan said. "Now what do we need to do first?"

"First, we're gonna need to power up that obelisk over to start the crystal network. If all the mirrors are still position around the city, then this should work, but we'll need a lot of crystals in order to power up a strong enough beam to get us going"

"Where heck are we gonna get that many-?" Stan was cut off when he heard rustling noise from behind. Turning around, he saw Soos, absently fiddling around with the numerous crystals he still had stuffed inside his shirt, pants and shoes.

Stan took one long, hard look at his trusted handyman. "Soos, I've never asked you this before and I never will again, but I need you to take your clothes off for me"

"My grandmother warned me this day would come" Soos said darkly, before proceeding to strip down. After he had removed everything but his unmentionables, Stan peered out from the archway once again and beckoned over to Dipper and Mabel, still hiding the alley, to join him.

"Hey, kids, we got a plan! Now, get over here and start doing it for me already"

* * *

"Where is it, where is it, where is it?!" Vincent was desperately shifting through several piles of rubble, trying to find his cube. He was certain it had fallen in this direction, but after a consistent lack of success, he was gradually beginning to lose himself in the panic, thinking he may never find it, until he spotted a small glean of something out of the corner of his eyes. Moving closer, he became ecstatic once he saw that it was the cube, wedged in between two rocks. Sighing with enormous relief, he pulled the cube free and hugged it to his chest.

"Oh, thank goodness, it's safe. It's safe" Vincent sighed again and felt his earlier panic drain away, allowing himself a relaxed smile. The only thing that put it off however, was the giant Queen Stoneburster, which was now looming over behind him with a ravenous glint in her eyes.

Without even turning around, Vincent quickly dropped his smile, and opened his eyes with a frustrated scowl.

"Ah, shit"

Reacting fast, Vincent telekinetically grabbed the nearest and biggest piece of rock next to him and flung it directly over his head, seconds before the Queen could sink her teeth right into him. The rock crumbled into dust between her pincers, but this was enough to give Vincent a head start. He took off into the air, quickly remembering the path that lead back to the cavern's entrance.

The Queen was about to chase after him, when out of nowhere, a beam of blue light shot out right in horizontal line in front of the her, forcing her to a halt. Vincent stopped as well, surprised by the appearance of this beam, which he could see stretched across the city, the light being reflected off a continuous chain of mirrors. Lowering her head, the Queen sniffed the beam, snarling viciously. Behind her, a large glowing light had appeared in the distance. Seemingly losing all interest in Vincent, the Queen moved off to the direction of the light, like she was drawn to it.

Once she was gone, Vincent dropped back down to the ground, confused. He didn't know what was happening right now, but he really didn't care either. He had want he needed and he was getting out of here while he had the chance.

* * *

"It's almost ready!" McGucket exclaimed, from the top of a small tower, watching the streaks of blue light beginning to approach them. He climbed back down and joined Dipper inside the plaza, who was observing the obelisk, which was glowing with the crystal energy and channelling it into a nearby mirror, which had reflected to the next one success throughout the city.

Stan, Soos and Mabel were each standing in different corner of the plaza, acting as human sized props for an additional set of mirrors. Mabel was off in the far corner, straining to hold up a very large mirror above her head. Soos (still in his underwear) had a mirror in each hand, with his right arm pointing up and his left pointing out at a perfect 90-degree angle. Stan had the worst of it though, standing on only one foot and struggling to keep hold of nearly a dozen smaller mirrors at once, one each hand, one balanced on his raised foot, some tucked under his arms, in between his shoulders, elbows, knees and even one in his teeth.

"Y'all ready?" McGucket asked them.

"Ready" Mabel grunted.

"Ready, willing and very nippy" Soos replied.

"Mhhggrrr" Stan said.

"Good. Now when the beam comes this way, all ya need to hold them positions to the exact millimetre" McGucket explained, adjusting Stan's arm slightly. "If my calculations are correct, you're standing in perfect angles that will add the necessary reflection boost needed for the beam to be at maximum power to be strong enough to blow that monster away." McGucket picked up another mirror and walked over to the only vacant corner of the plaza left. Flipping himself upside down, he stood on his head and gripped the mirror between his feet.

"Alright, Dipper. All that's left now is for you to man the last mirror." McGucket indicated over to the mirror on the raised platform beside the obelisk. "When the monster comes this way, all you got to do is aim it. By my calculations, it should do the trick"

Dipper nodded. "Got it". He paused briefly as he considered something. "One quick question. What are your calculations on your calculations being wrong?"

"Uh, that depends" McGucket said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Which's the bigger number again? One or zero? I always get those two mixed up."

Before Dipper could give an answer to this, he an unearthly rubble beneath his feet, as the Queen just entered into the plaza. Her eyes settling on the glowing obelisk, staring at with vengeful glare and letting out a hiss at the sight of it. She then looked down into the plaza and looked directly at Dipper, signalling him out as her next target. With a jolt of fear, Dipper broke into yet another run, as the Queen started chasing him all around the plaza, snapping furiously at him with her pincher teeth.

They circled the plaza at least three times, and with each pass she made, the Queen's giant, clawed feet were only inches away from crushing Stan and the others, who, despite the overwhelming sense of danger, remained perfectly still like statues, not moving a muscle, since they're lives quite literally depended on it.

Just when Dipper thought he couldn't run anymore, the crystal beam had completed its loop around the city and re-entered the plaza, hitting Mabel's mirror first, reflecting off to Soos' and then to Stan who remained absolutely still as the beam darted across each mirror that he was holding, surrounding his entire body with a string of lasers.

Seeing his chance about to come and go, Dipper made a break for the last mirror, sliding underneath the crystal beams in his way. He reached the platform and gripped the handles on the back of the mirror, pulling it as hard as he could, but it wouldn't budge. The Queen jumped over the width of the plaza and landed right in front of the pedestal, preparing to sink her teeth into Dipper

Putting everything he had into one more heave, Dipper yanked the mirror up and pointed directly at the Queen that was about to swallow him whole. At that same instance, the crystal beam reflected off McGucket's mirror and then struck the final mirror just as Dipper raised it up. Once the beam struck the relative glass, it briefly began to ripple with power and then released that power in blazing burst of light that enveloped the Queen's entire body. Once the light had dissipated, Dipper opened his eyes again and saw the only thing that now remained of the Stoneburster Queen was her sizzling, smoking skeleton, left suspended upright for a moment before crumbling into pieces. The obelisk powered down behind him, the crystal relay network disappearing throughout the city. Stan, Mabel, Soos and McGucket collapsed to the ground, groaning with exhaustions

"Uh, think, think, cool one liner, cool one liner" Dipper muttered rapidly to himself. "Well…..I guess you can say what goes around, comes around!".

He had _hoped_ that sounded better aloud than it did in his head, but the long, awkward stares he was rewarded with from his compatriots, made it clear this wasn't the case. Luckily, Dipper didn't have to dwell on this embarrassment for very long, as another tremor suddenly rocked the city.

Looking upward, Dipper saw that mirror's blast did more than just kill the Queen. It also left a hole in the celling of the cavern, which was now beginning to break apart, chunks of boulders raining down on the city from above. Quickly getting back to their feet, Dipper, Stan and everyone else started running, trying to dodge the falling debris. They swerved in and out between rocks smashing into the ground in front of them. One massive stalactite fell and puncture into the pillar holding the city up, causing a huge fissure to open, section of the city now breaking off and falling into the pit of lava below.

The group doubled their pace, as there was less and less ground for them to run on. Dipper was trailing in behind along with Mabel, but they came to an abrupt halt when another fissure cracked open the ground right between them. Mabel, who was on the wrong side of the fissure, lost her sense balance as the ground beneath her feet started to give way.

"Mabel!" Dipper cried, trying to grab her hand, but he was too late. The piece of ground broke off, falling down into the lava pit and taking Mabel with it. However, half way down the side of the cliff, she managed to grab hold of a small ledge and was now hanging on for dear life, struggling to pull herself up.

"Dipper, help!" she screamed.

"Mabel, just hold. I'll get you!" Thinking as fast as the synapsis in his brain could fire, Dipper spotted some oddly coloured vines growing off the side of building and quickly fashioned a make shift rope and harness for himself. After tying the vine of on a rock, Stan, Soos and McGucket started to lower Dipper down the side of the cliff toward Mabel, whose grip was beginning to get weaker by the second.

* * *

Vincent sighed in relief once more, finally making back to the cavern entrance, and in the nick of time. After that beam of light appeared, the cavern had started falling apart and by the looks of it, it seemed like the city of Underlandtis wasn't it was going to survive this cataclysmic, but Vincent couldn't have cared less. With the cube finally back in his possession, he felt the most relived in a long while and more confident than every that nothing would deter him from what he had to do next.

"Help!"

Vincent stopped right on the spot when he heard the sound of what could only be Mabel screaming for her life. He turned back to the city, he looked around widely for the sound her of voice, and soon spotted her, hanging on the edge of the cliff, over the pit of lava. His body clinched up, with both fear and distress at the sight of her. For the first time that he could remember in a very, very long while, he literally had no idea what to do. He looked down at the cube still in his hand, the thing he had struggled so hard to get and then back to tunnel leading out. He had everything that he wanted to get today. He had no other reason to stay, except…

"Help me!"

"Hold on, I'm almost there" Dipper said, edging his way closer to her. He was about to pull her up by the hand, but the vine suspending him ran out of length, stopping just out of Mabel's reach, barely inches away from her hand. Lifting her body as hard as she could, Mabel tried to push herself up just a bit further to grab Dipper's hand, but as soon as she had moved, the ledge she was holding onto gave away, sending her plummeting down into the lava below.

"Noooooooo!"" Dipper screamed with despair.

Mabel fell backwards through the air, screaming her louder than she ever had before, closing her eyes shut, preparing herself to be melted to crisp any second. But instead of searing hot lava, she felt her body be brought to complete stop, instantly losing all the momentum of her fall.

Opening her eyes, she found herself looking directly at none other than Vincent, who had swooped in and caught her in his arms, the two of them now hovering only a few feet above the bubbling lava. Unable to find any words to express what had just happened, Mabel simply wrapped her arms tightly around Vincent's neck as he flew back up to the city, touching down at the bridge leading to the cavern entrance.

Feeling more awkward by the second, Vincent set Mabel back on her feet and cleared his throat, doing his best to avoid her wide eye gaze.

"You…you saved me" Mabel finally managed to choke out, sounding both amazed and grateful.

Flustered, Vincent opened his mouth to try and reply, but instead he could only grimace with anger. "Tell your brother to leave me alone and stay out of my way" Vincent said to her in a low voice. "I'm not gonna warn you again".

And without another word, Vincent flew off, disappearing down into the tunnel, once again leaving Mabel behind. Only this time, she was a lot less confused about how she felt regarding him.

"Mabel!"

Before she knew it, Dipper rushed up and caught his sister in a tight hug, followed by Stan and Soos, all of them muttering in relief that she was safe and sound. For a moment, all of them, together, were lost in each other's embrace, sharing in the bond love that only a true family can experience.

"What are you guys, crazy!?" McGucket abruptly cried, sounding as though he was the last sane man alive. "We gotta get out of here!" His warning was conveniently emphasised when another piece of debris crashed right beside them, ruining the atmosphere.

Wasting no more time, Pines family and McGucket ran for the entrance they came through earlier, crossing over the stone bridge with only moments to spare before it was broken half by a piece of rock. Soon enough, the foundations of Underlandtis collapsed under the weight of the ceiling and the city sank down into the lava, never to be seen again.

* * *

Sometime later, they made it back to the surface, thanks to help of McGucket worm robot, parking in the middle of the woods. In single file, Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Soos and McGucket disembarked from the worm, welcoming the return of fresh air, grass and the clear night sky.

"Listen, thanks for the lift and everything McGucket" Stan said, trying his best to sound sincerely appreciative for a change. "You really came through for us back"

"Oh shucks, Stan" McGucket replied, holding his hat bashfully. "Don't mention it. Couldn't have done it without you giving some motivation. Maybe that's all I've really been missing all these years"

"You know, it's funny" Stan said, with a small smile. "But I guess being down on our luck is something you and me got in common. In another life, I think we could have been pretty good friends"

"Really?" McGucket said. " Well, thing is, I was thinking off doing something-"

"Sorry, got surgery that day" Stan cutting over him at lighting speed, dropping his sociable demeanour. "Been fun. Bye now"

And with that, Stan ushered Dipper, Mabel and Soos away before McGucket could extend any further invitation for companionship, leaving him both literally and figuratively out in the cold.

"Mabel, I'm sorry" Dipper said apologetically after walking some distance from McGucket. "For everything that happened to you. It was all my fault. I got in over my head and I know I ruined you dance off thing. I'm sorry"

"It's okay" Mabel replied, kindly. "You might not believe this, but I actually had a lot more fun together than I was expecting. And wait I tell you about Vincent. See, he's really-"

"Oh, wait that's right" Dipper said with a renewed sense of urgency, pulling out Journal#3. "Back when we were down there, I found this secret message left behind by the Author. He left it as a warning". Filliping through the book until he found the passage he had copied from the tablet, Dipper cleared his throat and began to read from the passage.

"_After an arduous journey through the tunnels, I've finally hidden the first piece of the Voltrex Vexus at the top of the temple of Underlandtis. It should be safe here as well as the other two pieces I've already elsewhere. No matter what, the Voltrex pieces must never be reunited or fall into the hands the Voltaruss family ever again. If so, they could unleash a power unlike anything the world has ever seen. What I have fear the most may soon be upon us. The end of all things. Only now do I see that we were all pawns in his game. The Voltrex is exactly what he needs to-_

"To what?" Mabel asked, already in suspense.

"To be continued….." Soos said ominously. "Heh, just kidding. Gotcha with that one, didn't I?"

"That's all there was" Dipper explained. "He must not have gotten the chance to finish the message. But don't you see? Vincent is after this thing, this Voltrex Vexus thing. And if he gets, he could end up destroying the whole world. That's why the Author imprisoned him in the first. So, now we have to do the same"

"We do?" Mabel asked meekly

"Yes!" Dipper exclaimed, sounding dead serious. "I have to- I mean, _we_ have to stop him before he finds the other two pieces. If he does, who knows what he'll do with them. Mabel, did you learn anything useful about him? Like, what his next plan is or maybe some other weakness? You spent the entire day with him. You must have learned something?"

"Uhhhh" Mabel avoided her brother's eyes, considering how she should answer the question. Opting for the quickest solution, she lied.

"Uh, no. I didn't learn anything about him"

For a moment, Mabel wasn't sure if Dipper really believed her answer, but before he had the chance to press further, Grunkle Stan step in between them.

"Alright, kids, I'd say that's enough excitement for one day" he said. "It's six thirty in the morning, so let's you all to bed before the child services guys find me. Plus, the Mystery Shack opens in like half hour, so you're not getting much shut eye tonight. Now let's go"

Heeding Stan's words, the group said began the long trek back home again. Mabel walked a few paces behind Dipper and Stan. She sighed, with an unsarcastically despondent expression on her face. Reaching behind her back, she pulled out the letter she found in Vincent's bedroom, and all she could do was wondered how in the world she was ever going to give it back to him.

* * *

**Finally. Finally done. You have no idea how relieved I am to get over this. I know I probably made it too long, I know I could have cut it back or split it up, but at the end of the day, I am proud of how it turned out. The part that took me the longest to do was the dance off contest. I even considered dropping it, but seeing how much it would mean to Mabel, I couldn't bring myself to do. Plus, I thought to myself, would ever actually happen in Gravity Falls? And the answer is yes, yes it would**

**Anywho, back to smaller chapters next. I have something a bit new planned ahead and will focus again on Dipper(and Pacifica) since they haven't had much screen time in a good while. And before anyone else gets it into their heads that I'm going to pair off Vincent and Mabel together, let me just say that right now, Mabel doesn't have romantic feelings for him, but she does feel a great deal of empathy for him, which you'll see later on. As for Vincent himself, he's not sure how he feels about Mabel, since she's the first person he's had a positive interaction with in a very long time**

**So, you know. Like it. Hate it. Leave a review and have a good day :)**


	33. The Graffiti Guru

**Back sooner than you thought I'd be. Smaller chapters are definitely easier for me to upload and I hope to have the next one soon as well. I apologize again for the length of the last chapter, but I'm never the less happen with it. Unless it's a really big chapter, I want to refrain from breaking up if I can help it, unless it's so big I have no other choice.**

**So like I said before, this next story arc will be more focused on Dipper and I have some interesting developments in mind. We also won't be seeing Vincent for a little while, as Dipper and Mabel will contend with a new problem.**

**Absolute Rift: **Happy to be back as well. I really don't want to have such a long break again if it can be helped. The longer it takes me the write a chapter, the more interest I start lose and the more interest I lose, the longer it takes, so it's a bad cycle. That's why I want to do some quick uploads to make up for it.

**Sturm and Drang. **Thank you. I agree it was probably too long, but I didn't want to break the chapter up again as I promised I would end that story arc in one chapter. Maybe I was wrong, but I can't go back now. And thanks again for liking the humour. The dance off was definitely my favourite thing to write.

* * *

"So, we managed to escape just before the whole city crumbled into the lava, which is disappointing in itself, but the main thing is that we all got away safely and I've finally discovered what Vincent is really up to. He's trying to this thing call the Voltrex which was broken up into three pieces and hidden somewhere in Gravity Falls by the Author. Now he's trying to reunite them again to do… whatever it's supposed to do, but based on my knowledge of ancient relics broken into pieces that have to be brought back together, it normally doesn't mean anything good"

Pacifica, looking at Dipper from across the table, outside the smoothie shop, her head slumped down onto her hand, said nothing, instead just taking a long and very slow sip of her fruit smoothie.

"Uh…huh" she managed to drawl out, looking bored out of her mind from listening to Dipper's thorough monologed of what had happened to him since the last time they spoke.

"Exactly" Dipper said, his ears too filled with the sound of his own voice to notice her disinterest. "So, now what I need to do is to find out where the Voltrex pieces are hidden and keep them out of Vincent's hands. The problem is there is nothing in the Journal about them. They must have been so secretive the Author wouldn't even leave a trail to find them. Right now, I have nothing to go on, so I'll have to hope I get lucky"

"When I asked if you wanted to get a smoothie together, this isn't exactly what I had in mind" she said, more to herself than to him. "Kinda thought that I'd be the one talking and ignoring you"

"There's also been no sign of Vincent since it happened" Dipper continued. "He must be lying low. Probably planning his next move. But another thing that's been bothering me is Mabel. She's been acting a little weird ever since we got back. Every time I ask her about what she was doing with Vincent while they were handcuffed together, she gets all evasive and changes subject. Like she doesn't want to talk to me about it.

"Well, duh, of course she wouldn't want to talk about it with you" Pacifica said, now absently reading a magazine.

"Yes and-wait, what do you mean by that?" Dipper asked, finally getting thrown off track for the first time since the conversation started

"You mean it's_ not_ obvious to you?" Pacifica said, glancing up from her magazine. "That's kinda why I said duh"

"Oh, uh, yeah, yeah" Dipper said, as confidently as he could. "Of course, it's-it's obvious. Like so, so obvious. You'd have to be an idiot that to see something that obvious"

"Don't know, do you?" Pacifica said dryly.

"No, haven't a clue" Dipper admitted shamefully.

Pacifica rolled her eyes. "If Mabel really spent an entire day with Vincent and doesn't want to talk about anything that went on between them, then it can only be for one reason"

Dipper let out a horrified gasp and banged his fist down on the table. "That's it! He brainwashed her, didn't he?!" He was quickly reward with his outburst, with sharp smack on the forehead from Pacifica's rolled up magazine.

"No" she said, waving her magazine at him like a disobedient dog. "You seriously need to stop being such a guy. It's obvious that your sister has a thing for this vampire kid"

"What?!" Dipper said incredulously, rubbing his head slightly. "No way! That's impossible. He is pure evil. He's both figuratively and literally a monster. And he's definitely not even good looking….I would assume by regular standards"

"Oh, come on. She hangs out with this guy all day and she won't tell you anything about what they were doing or what went on between them. Something totally happened. Something that meant a lot to Mabel that she wants to keep it between herself and him"

"Okay" Dipper said slowly. "But that doesn't mean, she has a crush on him or anything"

"So, what, she's never had any, like, weird and random crushes on guys before?"

Dipper took a short sip of his own smoothie as he considered every conceivable way he could best answer that very awkward question.

"Once…. or twice" he finally said. "But what could she possibly see in him of all people? He is in the top running for list of the absolute worst people I have ever met."

"Exactly, he's a bad boy" Pacifica said. "Here's a little-known fact about girls. They like going for the bad boys. Guys that they think can change. They convince themselves that they fix whatever's wrong with them. That way, the girl can have a boyfriend exactly the way they want and while also having a fun little challenge"

"That seems very underhanded and manipulative" Dipper said. "Wouldn't it better if two people try to build a relationship by accepting who the other person is, instead of forcing them to be something else?"

"Oh, you poor, sweet, innocent little boy" Pacifica said, shaking her head in pity. "You don't stand a chance"

Dipper grunted indignantly at her remark. "I'm not saying it's bad thing to want to change a person" he said. "I'm saying it's just not practical. I mean okay, you've changed a lot and I'm super happy that you did. I love the way you are now, but it's not the same. You were a jerk because of your parents. Vincent is a jerk because he chooses to be. Mabel couldn't never in a million years change someone like that"

Pacifica paused in mid sip of her smoothie, as her attention now focused on one thing in particular Dipper had just said.

"What do you mean, you _love_ the way I am now?" she asked.

Dipper nearly spat up his own smoothie in surprise, catching it inside his mouth and gulping it down hard, now trying to think of some practical means to make himself invisible.

"Well, uh, what I meant was…." he began, nervously rapping his fingers on the table. "Of-of-of course I like you more now…. than what I did before. I mean let's face it, you weren't the nicest person I knew, and I really like the ways things are between us now, because we can talk like this to each other…. and we can hang out together and have fun together…. and maybe occasionally do other stuff that we later repress and will probably never speak of again- and oh, hey, look at that!" he yelled suddenly, like a man who had just found a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. "There's big crowd over there! Why don't we go see what all the abrupt commotion is about and never come back this conversation?"

Dipper grabbed his smoothie and hurriedly hopped off from his chair to join the crowd, Pacifica soon following after him. The crowd was gathered outside the grocery store, murmuring in discontent at some unseen spectacle. Dipper and Pacifica moved through crowd until they reached the front and saw what everyone was looking at. The front of the store was being taped off by Sheriff Bulbs and Deputy Durland, the store owner sitting outside on the kerb, with a blanket over his shoulders and sobbing uncontrollably. It seemed as though someone had spray painted on a huge and colour collage of graffiti drawings all over the front of the store, covering the windows and walls.

"What happened here?" Dipper asked aloud. His question was then answered by a nearby Toby Determined.

"Some miscreant has vandalised the Tons grocery store with some abhorrent graffiti. The same thing happened at the arcade this morning and at the diner where Lazy Eye Susan works. Oh, what kind of horrific nightmare has befallen our fair little town?"

"It's only a little bit of graffiti" Dipper said, not seeing any cause for concern. "What's the big deal?

"What's the big deal?!" Toby exclaimed dramatically, but then immediately recomposed himself again. "In retrospect, none. But we live a small, isolated and easy going community without a lot of stimulation. Even the smallest act of crime is enough to drive people around here into mass hysteria and irrational paranoia. Well, I'm off to load up on some hardware for the impending gang war. It's gonna be a real blood bath when it happens". Toby, along with the rest of the crowd, began to disperse away from the store, leaving only Dipper and Pacifica to look at the graffiti.

"You know, I can see why this would upset people" Pacifica said, after examining the graffiti for a moment. "This is so ugly to look at and the colour palette looks like it was done by a dog"

"It looks kinda weird from this angle" Dipper said, titling his head to the side. "Wonder if there's a secret pattern or maybe-no, no, can't be distracted, this is not worth my time"

"You mean, you aren't going to go all detective-y on this and try to figure who did this?" Pacifica said.

"No time" Dipper said, now with a serious and no nonsense demeanour about himself. "This is probably nothing but somebody's idea of a prank. I got a more important mystery to try and solve. Which reminds me, I gotta get back home and go over some more theories". Dipper quickly sucked up the reminder of his smoothie. "I'll see you later Pacifica and I'll let you know if I find-oohhhh I drank that too fast!". Dipper dropped his professional bravado and relented to the throbbing pain now pounding in his skull, going weak at the knees.

"See….you…later…" he grunted out, wobbling away, while still half-heartedly trying to maintain some semblance of dignity.

Pacifica watched Dipper go on his way and couldn't help but chuckled innocently at his roundabout display, as she waved him goodbye.

* * *

Back in the Mystery Shack, Mabel was sitting alone behind the cash register, with a melancholy expression, scribbling a number of crude doodles on some pieces of paper. One of the doodles was of two stick figures with chain tying their hands together. The title of the doodle read, 'Chain Together Buddies'. Mable was so caught up in her own thoughts, she didn't hear Wendy walk into the room.

"Sup, Mabel" she said, as amicable as always.

"YOU SAW NOTHING!" Mabel screamed, jumping out of her seat and immediately covering up her drawings. "You can't prove anything! I have plausible deniability! What's with all these questions?! Who are you working for?! I'll call up my pretend lawyer and bring you up on harassment. You think I won't go there? I'll go there!"

"Chill, I just said hi" Wendy said, unperturbed by Mabel's aggressive reaction. "Something tells me there's something on your mind"

Mabel calmed herself and fell back into her chair, leaning her head down on the counter. "Sorry. I just-I don't know. I've been thinking a lot about this….um, this friend that I know and I'm not really sure what to do"

"This friend of yours got a name?" Wendy asked.

Mabel quickly blurted out the first name that came into her head. "Estebon Javier Franz Jefferson, the third….tee-if"

"Uh huh and what exactly is the problem with Estebon?"

"Well, Estebon is a bit of a loner and he doesn't have many friends and has a hard time talking to people. And he may also possibly be a crazy supervillain, but deep down, I think that he's actually a really good person, even if no else thinks he is. Do think I should try and talk to him?"

"Dude, go for it" Wendy replied easily. "If you think your friend is cool, then don't be scared to talk to him. Call him up and ask him to hang out. All he can say is no. "

"Well, another thing" Mabel said. "Thing is, Estabon and Dipper don't really get along very well and they maybe want to murder each other whenever they're in the same room"

"Don't worry about it. Dipper's your brother" Wendy said simply. "He knows you know what you're doing. I'm sure he'd understand"

"Thanks Wendy" Mabel said with a grateful smile. The two of them shared a small fist bump before Wendy departed once more, just as Dipper entered into the shop.

"Hey, Mabel" he said, walking up to counter, taking off his pack back and pulling out his notebook. "So, I've been thinking more about how we're going find the next Voltrex piece. I figure that wherever they're hidden, it must be some place, that's generally isolated or hard to get to. Some ideas I have so far are, the lake, the forest, the old miners cave. Then again, there's always the possibility it might be a hidden somewhere in plain sight kind of deals, but unfortunately we don't really know what it looks either.

"Well, actually, about this thing with Vincent" Mabel said, getting down from her seat. "I was thinking maybe, you know, instead of all us fighting for our lives, we could try a different approach? Like say, invite Vincent over here and have a friendly game of badminton? The even more wimpier and less provocative version of tennis. And afterwards, we can all seat down, have some nice tea together and settle our grievances the diplomatic way. I have the fake beards all ready"

Dipper stared at Mabel in silence. "Okay, I see where this is going" he said, his expression knowing. "And I know from personal experience that trying to talk you out of it won't do any good, so I'll just be patient and let this thing run its course until you get over this"

"Get over what?" Mabel asked, uncertain what Dipper meant.

"Look, its fine, I understand that this is what you do and that you can't help yourself. But like I said, I'll be patient"

"What are you talking about?"

Dipper crossed his arms and looked at his sister plainly. "Mabel, I know what this is really about. You have a crush on Vincent, don't you?"

"What?" Mabel said, genuinely surprised by his statement. "No, Dipper, I don't have a crush on him. This is nothing like that. I really do think he's a good person on the inside. If we just made an effort to try talk him, we could all get along"

"Oh, come on Mabel" Dipper said sceptically. "You've had like ten crushes since we got here. Not all of them on real people either. Besides, isn't a vampire boyfriend one of your all-time fantasies? Didn't you want to Norman to be a vampire? How many of those age inappropriate romantic vampire novels have you read?"

"This has nothing to do with any of that, no matter how coincidentally less credible it happens to makes me look" Mabel said with a straight face. "Vincent's really not that bad of a person. Trust me on this. I spent time with him and I think he's really just… lonely, that's all. Plus, remember how he saved my life?"

"He also tried to kill us a few times". Dipper began to count off with his fingers. "The time he threw a big tree at us, the time he sent a demonic dog beast after me and Soos, the time he made that big skeleton monster that tried to crush us, the time he held us all hostage in Abendroth's bunker. Really uneven scoreboard here"

"I'm not saying we haven't a few bumps" Mabel said awkwardly. "But I'm sure if we give him a chance to-"

"To what, suck up all our blood up like a sponge?" Dipper finished impatiently. "Mabel, he is a bad guy. You need to trust me on this. I've been through this with you before and I know how it always ends. This is just a phase that you go through with when dealing with guys. You'll get over it"

"I am _not_ going through some phase here" Mabel said, now visibly becoming angry. "This isn't about me wanting to like him. It's about me wanting to help him"

"Right" Dipper said, unconvinced. "And you don't happen to think that you can't create the perfect boyfriend for yourself, by convincing yourself that you can fix whatever's wrong with him, do you? Isn't that why girls go for bad boys?"

Mabel jumped back, gasping in shock and horror. "Those are forbidden secrets of girlhood! You've been talking with Pacifica haven't you!?"

Dipper was about to follow up with another retort, when there was loud rattling noise at the door, as someone started knocking.

"Somebody other than me get that" Stan bellowed from the back room.

Taking the incentive, Dipper opened the door of the shop and found himself standing face to face with none other than Sheriff Bulbs and Deputy Durland

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"Oh nothing" Bulbs replied in a nonchalant manner. "We just thought we'd stop by, without any ulterior motives, and say hello"

"How's things with you and your imaginary girlfriend?" Durland asked, in very poor attempt at small talk. "You two doing good?"

"Really nice weather we're having these days isn't?" Bulb said. "Really great, and you don't happen to know who the Graffiti Guru is do you?"

"The what?" Dipper said, taken aback by the abrupt question.

"Graffiti Guru" Durland said. "The one vandalising all the buildings in town"

"Why would I know who that is?" Dipper asked suspiciously

Bulbs rubbed his neck nervously. "Uh, look here's the thing, city boy. We're kinda at our wits end with this graffiti thing that's been going on all morning. We're actually having to put _real _effort into our jobs for once"

"Before it was great" Durland lamented. "We could just arbitrary use of our power of authority to get whatever we wanted, but now people are starting to hold _us_ accountable for bad things that happen under our watch"

"And rather than owe up to our own under performance" Bulbs said. "We decided to take the easy route and shamelessly beg for your help"

On cue, they both dropped to their knees, their arms outstretched. "Please, help us! Help us find the Graffiti Guru and we'll only steal some of your credit this time"

Dipper was very surprised by this unexpected development, but soon allowed himself a very smug smirk, as he began to feel pretty big about himself.

"Fellas, normally, I'd love to help" he replied, chuckling somewhat conceitedly. "But I am currently deeply involved in a plot that could decide the fate of the world as we know it. So, I'm afraid I cannot allow myself to be distracted by anything else at the moment. Maybe next time"

"You take bribes, though right?" Bulb asked desperately. "We do it all the time. How about this? We'll personal rip up any unpaid parking tickets you have. Plus, we'll let you fool around with our handcuffs, baton and pepper spray."

"Trust me, it's really fun" Durland added brightly. "Especially if you do it in the bedroom"

"Sorry, but I really-"

"What if we throw in twenty bucks?" Bulbs suggested, pulling out a wade of money.

A gentle breeze carried the scent of money through the air into the Mystery Shack and awakened the beast within. In a puff of smoke, Grunkle Stan instantly materialized right behind Dipper and snatched the money out of Bulbs hands, faster than you could blink.

"He'll do it!" Stan said.

"What?" Dipper said in disbelief. "But Grunkle Stan, I'm busy with other stuff today"

"Hey, if you're gonna waste your time solving mysteries for a living, might as well make a decent wage off it" Stan said. "And by you, I mean me, as I'm keeping the money"

"But Grunkle Stan, I don't have time for that" Dipper stressed. "I have something important to do"

"Look, don't do this for yourself Dipper" Stan said solemnly. "Do it for me, because I told ya to"

"But I-"

"No buts, except for your butt getting out there and solving a mystery. Now get out moving"

"Well alright then" Bulbs said, evidently satisfied. "Looks like we're free for the afternoon. Come on Durland, let's go put police tape on people's houses while they're away and let them think someone's dead inside"

Giggling with delight, the inept law officers ran off to cause some mischief, while Stan strutted away with his earning, leaving Dipper behind to bear all the responsibility. Groaning in frustration, he shut the door behind him and walked back to Mabel

"Oh man, I can't believe this" he said bitterly. "Why does Grunkle Stan always lump this stuff on me? This is supposed to be my summer, so why can't I decide how to spend my own time?"

"Oh, well don't ask me!" Mabel replied, in a tone that clearly meant she was anything but happy with him right now. "I don't know what's best for anybody, because apparently, I just jump from one crush to another like little frog. In fact, I think I just got a crush on this handsome trash bin". Mabel picked up a nearby bin and began to caress it tenderly in her arms. "Oh, I'm so drawn to his alluring aroma of rotting garbage, because after all, I'm nothing but a love-sick puppy looking for companionship, that also happens to be a frog that jumps around. I'm a puppy-frog hybrid! I am abomination of nature. Now love me!"

Dipper rubbed his eyes wearily, not even sure where to begin with this. "Mabel, I did not say you-"

"Wobbit, wobbit" she said. "That's a woof and ribbit at the same time. Wobbit!"

"Okay, Mabel" Dipper said, throwing his hands up in defeat. "If you don't want to help, fine. I'm going to out solve this graffiti crime spree on my own and then when I get back, I'll start looking for the Voltrex pieces myself. And I will get through it with both efficiency and expediency. Why, you're not asking me, but I will say anyway, is because I never allow myself to be distracted by-"

Dipper was cut off from that last part by the sound of the doorbell, jiggling for a second, as someone opened the door behind him.

And, to coming misfortune of a great many, many people, was when _she _walked in….

* * *

**And no. It's not Pacifica. In fact, it's nobody you know. There's a new girl in town and oh, yes. She will be nothing but trouble for….well everybody I should say. After a lot of people said how much they liked Vincent, I decided that I wanted to try another OC, but this one will go a whole different direction, so stayed tuned to find out. **

**Anywho, hope you liked the chapter, please leave a review and peace out.**


	34. New Girl in Town

**Absolute Rift. **I like to think I'm spot with the characters, but honestly, I don't think anyone could really do it better than Alex Hirsch himself or the rest of the team involved in the show. But I always try to do my best with the characters, since I think that's also a good way of honouring the show itself. Still I do want to add a couple more OCs to the story, just to try and stay more original

* * *

Neither Dipper nor Mabel had ever seen this girl before, but they certainly weren't going to forget the first time seeing her as she strolled into the shop. Or more accurately, she _rolled_ into the shop, riding atop a black coloured skateboard.

The girl looked to be the same age and height as they were. She was dressed mainly in black, wearing a leather jacket, a red tank top underneath and a thigh high mini skirt with a pair of dark boots, giving her a punk girl style look. She was also wearing a pair of identical, sliver bracelets on each wrist, and small necklace. Her hair was black, spiky, with a small red streak in the middle and her eyes were a deep shade of violet

This mysterious and unnamed girl didn't announce herself once she had entered. She simply surveyed the interior of the shop with aloof indifference, until her eyes finally focused on Dipper, who just so happened to looking right at her. Kicking off her skateboard with her foot, she crossed the length of the room in less than second and skidded to halt directly in front of Dipper, her face hovering inches away from his. Dipper's whole body froze up, almost terrified to make any move.

The girl stared at him with her violet eyes for what was a definite length of time that could be classified as awkward. Mabel glanced back and forth between Dipper and the girl, not sure what to expect, until the girl finally spoke up.

"Gum?"

"Uhhh….gum?" Dipper replied feebly.

The girl blew a quick bubble of gum from her mouth and then popped it. "Gum. Have. You. Me. Buy? Verbs?"

"You…. want to buy some gum?" Dipper said.

The girl pulled back from him and gave him a kind of dismissive smile. "Sorry. I assumed from the dumb hat that you must work here". Manoeuvring her skateboard around Dipper, the girl moved up to the counter, where Stan was counting some money.

"Hey, old timer" she said, leaning on the counter with her elbow. "You sell any gum?"

"What's this look like, a candy shop to you?" Stan replied, in his usual gruff manner.

"No, looks like a dump that keeps itself afloat by taking advantage of either the very stupid or very gullible" the girl replied, with an underlying, derisive streak in her voice that was natural sounding enough to imply that she spoke this way often. "But luckily for you, I just want some gum. Think you handle that, old timer?"

Stan put down the money he was counting and turned to face the girl, with a challenging look in his eye. Now she had gotten his full attention.

"Listen here little missy" he said. "I'll have you know that the Mystery Shack is home to some of the most amazing and mind blogging wonders in the world. You can get a stick of gum for like penny at a gas station, but what price are you willing to pay for chance to learn the untold secrets of what's inside…. the Ball Shaped Box!".

Stan reached underneath the counter and held up what was clearly not just a basketball with the word 'box' painted on it. "Built by Tasmania carpenters in like…. I don't know, 1740 and a half. Its mysterious contents have been lost to the winds of time, since no one knows how to open it. Some say there's a box shaped ball hidden inside. Feeling gullible yet?" Stan asked, confidently smug.

Surprisingly, the girl didn't look to be the least bit moved by Stan's sales pitch, but then a mischievous grin slowly crept onto her face. "Untold secrets, huh? That _does_ sound interesting. But I think I might be more interested in the little secret that you're hiding, old timer"

Stan's face quickly dropped into alarm. "Wha-what, you talking about?" he said, already sweating nervously. The girl beckoned him to come closer. Stan bent over the counter, bringing his face down to her level.

"The little secret….. that's behind this eye patch" she said. With her two fingers, the girl plucked Stan's eye patch off his face and stretched it back several inches, before releasing it again. The patch smacked Stan right in his eye, causing him to jump up and down in the air like a horse that had just been slapped on his rear, while the girl cackled hysterically at his pain.

"Yow!" Stan yelped, rubbing his bruised eye. His expression then turned to anger. "Why you little-!"

"Gum!" Dipper blurted out.

"I was going for something a little more R rated there" Stan said.

"No, I mean, I actually have some gum right here" Dipper quickly moved in between the vengeful Stan and the unnamed girl, who didn't look the least bit admonished by her actions. Reaching into his pocket, he took a small stick of gum and offered it to the girl. "You can have it, if-if you want. On me. No trouble"

The girl eyed the stick of gum, before taking it from Dipper's hand. Undoing the wrapper, she removed her old wade of gum from her mouth and tossed in the new stick. Without a thank you or any kind of acknowledgment, the girl turned her back on Dipper, hopped back on her skateboard and glided toward to the door, absently tossing her old gum right into Mabel's hair as she passed by with back hand motion.

Once the girl was gone, Stan scoffed disapprovingly at Dipper's actions. "That's why you'll never make a great business man like me, Dipper" he said. "Letting some tenacious girl come in here and walk all over you, then just cave in and give her whatever she wants. You'll be a wonderful husband though"

Dipper didn't seem to hear what Stan was saying, his eyes were still focused on the door where the girl had just been. After a brief moment, he shook his head and blinked a few times, as if trying to shake off a sense of dizziness. He slowly walked back over to Mabel, who managed to pry the piece of gum out of her hair, taking only a marginal chunk of hair in the process.

"Right. Uh, that was…um, what-what was I saying again?" Dipper said, now at a complete loss.

Soos appeared beside the two of them, broom in hand as he was sweeping dust across the room. "You were talking about how you don't get distracted by anything when you were suddenly got distracted by the appearance of that mysterious new girl. Boy, she sure made some first impression huh? I've got good feeling that she's gonna be a really well liked and highly original type of character that's now be introduced into our lives"

Dipper only seem to make out the first part of what Soos had said. "Right, distractions. And…before that I was talking about…?"

"Solving the graffiti crime spree?" Mabel said, now visibly put off by Dipper's uncharacteristic bout of sluggishness.

"Yeah, yeah, the graffiti….um, thing" he said, scratching his head, still trying to piece together his train of thought. "I'll just…. go do. That. I'll go do that".

Still looking dazed, Dipper shuffled his way toward the door and exited through it. Mabel remained where she was, more confused than anything else by what had transpired. She then noticed the trash bin next to her. Taking a deep breath, she turned away from the bin, holding her hand up to it with a tragic expression.

"What happened before was nothing but an act" she said in a hard voice to the trash bin. "I'm sorry if I mislead you, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking it could be any more"

* * *

Not long after he left the Mystery Shack, and once his head was finally cleared, Dipper had returned to the grocery store, which was the most recent graffiti crime scene. Journal and pen in hand, Dipper began to survey the graffiti artwork sprayed over the front of the shop, looking to see if he could establish some sort of pattern.

Unfortunately, from his perspective, it all looked to be nothing but a pointless collage of colours, formless shapes and zig-zag contours that didn't appear to fit any kind of specific narrative or order. The graffiti reached up all the way to the roof of the building and even stretched out along the sides, all the way to the back. Dipper followed along the sides of the building, finding even more bizarre graffiti decorating the alley way beside the store.

"Okay, so what's the profile here?" he said, tapping his pen to his upper lip. "No distinguishable pattern, no obvious message. What's it's trying to say? It just seems so…. random". Dipper sighed and rolled his eyes at the sudden sense of irony he was feeling. "Now I kinda wish Mabel was here. This is definitely more her area of expertise. What about the buildings themselves, what is their connection? They must all have had something in common for someone to target them like this, but who could have the motive to do this? "

Dipper wrote down each point as it came into his mind, hoping it would lead to some connection. Absorbed into his work, he briefly lifted his face up from the pages of the Journal and the next he saw was a pair of violet coloured eyes staring right at him.

"Argh!" Dipper tripped at the back of his feet in surprise and fell backwards to the pavement. Standing over his fallen form, was the same girl he had met at the Mystery Shack.

"You often talk out loud to yourself?" she asked, amused. Dipper quickly picked himself back up, brushing some of the dirt off his shirt, trying to look more dignified.

"N-no, I-I-I mean, uh" he said awkwardly. "I just like to think out loud sometimes, you know. Helps get my thoughts together and, um-". Glancing down at Journal on the ground, Dipper absently moved to pick it up but the unnamed girl grabbed it before he could. Holding the book up, she eyed the six-fingered cover with a somewhat curious expression.

"Um, that's actually mine" Dipper said, with a note of alarm in his voice as the girl opened up the Journal. "Could you give it back please?"

The girl didn't respond to Dipper's request and instead just passively started to flip through the pages with a vague sense of interest. Growing impatience, Dipper abruptly snatched the book out of the girl hands.

"Sorry, but, ah, this book is something of a treasured keepsake that means quite a lot to me and I'd kinda appreciate you not brazening browsing through it without my consent" Dipper said, sticking the Journal back under his jacket. After a moment, he let out a small nervous laugh, slightly embarrassed by his bold declaration

The girl said nothing as she stared at Dipper, her expression unreadable, until she let out a small smirk. She briskly walked past him and down along the alleyway, running her eyes over the graffiti covered wall.

"Uh, what are you doing here exactly?" Dipper asked, trying his best not to sound like he was being put off by the girl's presence.

"What are_ you_ doing here?" the girl replied, her eyes still on the graffiti.

"I asked you first"

"And I asked you second"

"So, logically, you will answer my question first?" Dipper said, in a triumphant streak of deductive reasoning.

The girl stopped walking and turned her head to look at Dipper with a strange, enigmatic smile before, turning back to look at graffiti without saying a single word. Dipper's smile soon faded as he became increasingly perturbed by the girl's unwavering silence, which for some reason was starting to make him feel more unsettled than it should have. Although she had literally said nothing, it no less felt like she had somehow debunked Dipper's entire argument beyond any reproach.

"I'm trying to figure out who is behind all this graffiti" he said, unable to contain himself.

"Really?" the girl said, popping another bubble of gum. "And what exactly does that make you? Like a detective or something?"

"Well" Dipper chuckled, feeling relived at the change of subject and equally happy at the chance to boast a little. "More of mystery buff, but yes, I do some detective work from time to time. In fact, I once solved the grisly murder of a beheading…..involving wax figure of my great uncle by some other evil wax figurines of celebrities. Not really PG-13, but I think it was no less intellectually challenging stimulating, so really-"

Before Dipper could get another word out with his rambling, the girl abruptly advanced on him, drawing uncomfortably close to his face once again with a sly small.

"Well, Mr _Detectiv_e" she said, with an almost a sultry undertone in her voice. "You have any idea who's behind all this graffiti yet? I'd just love to hear your thoughts on the subject"

"Uhhhhhhh….." . For a moment, Dipper soon forget how to form any more than one syllable. He could feel a wave of sweat rolling down his back and his feet now felt like they had literally fused to the ground, unable to move. He was also beginning to feel the same dizziness he felt earlier as the girl's violet eyes bore into him. He couldn't tell if they were mesmerising or just plain creepy. Probably both.

"Not…not yet" he said, trying to keep his voice at a low pitch. "I'm still looking into it. T-thank you for asking". Dipper cleared his throat. "You know, I-I-I didn't happen to catch your name before"

"That's because I didn't give it to you" the girl replied coolly as she pulled away from him again.

"So, what is your name?" Dipper asked.

"What's yours?" the girl said.

"I asked you first"

"And I asked you second" she said, flashing him another smile. Once again, Dipper found himself again at an apparent loss for argument.

"It's Dipper" he said flatly. "Dipper Pines"

"Dipper? Like the Big Dipper?"

"It's a nickname" Dipper said. "Now, what's your name?"

"Who ever said I was going to tell you my name?" the girl chuckled.

"But, you just said-" Dipper began, now becoming visibly flustered, but soon held back his tongue. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and released. This was not productive and he wasn't going waste time by prodding further. "Okay, look, never mind. Forget I asked. I gotta get back to work, so goodbye". Taking out his Journal again, Dipper went back to studying the graffiti, trying to ignore the girl as she stood behind him.

"What's the matter?" she teased. "Aren't you curious as to who I am, and what my agenda is?"

"More than I care to admit, but also just less than enough for me to pursue it further" Dipper said without missing a beat, briefly turning back to the girl. "So, whoever you are, I bid you a fond farewell and wish you good day"

"Oh, that's too bad" the girl said with mock concern. "You see, I was _this_ close to giving you the very, very important clue you need to crack the case"

_Don't fall for it, don't fall for it, don't fall for it, don't fall for it_

"What clue is that exactly?" Dipper blurted out, mentally facing palming himself.

The girl smiled again. "Say I were to know something, something about this whole graffiti thing or maybe something about whose behind it. And say, I might be willing to share that with you. What would you have to say to that?"

"I'd say…..that I'd be very grateful and appreciative if you told me what you know without any kind of elaborate context" Dipper said, with a hopeful smile.

The girl however was just as eager to disappoint him. "Oh, but where's the fun in that?" she said, moving closer to him. "No, I'd say you're gonna have to _coerce_ the info out of me, Mr Detective". The girl poked him in the chest and began to playfully ruffle his shirt.

Dipper gulped slightly, his discomfort now shooting through the roof once again. "Coerce…. you?" he said, not liking the way the girl had used that word or her proclivity for getting really, _really_ close to him. Avoiding the girls' violet eyes, Dipper tried to focus all his effort to thinking best possible strategy to oust the information from this girl.

"Um…..pretty, pretty please?" he said lamely.

The girl laughed slightly, giving Dipper a patronizing look. "Okay, I'll make it easy for you. Let's play a game. And if you win, I'll tell you want I know"

"What's the game" Dipper asked cautiously.

"Simple. Just catch me" the girl said.

"Catch you?" Dipper said.

"Yup. That's all. Well?". The girl opened her arms out wide, as if beckoning Dipper to try his luck

Dipper stared at the girl with suspicious trepidation, not expecting it to be this easy. Slowly, he raised his right hand and reached out to touch the girl on her shoulder. However, when he less than an inch away from her, the girl suddenly started to drift backwards, as if she was standing on a conveyer belt.

Glancing down at her feet, Dipper saw to his surprise, that she was now riding the same black skateboard she had back at the Mystery Shack, but he was sure that she did not have that board with when she first appeared here.

"Ready or not, here I go" she said, exiting the alley way and rounding the corner of the store.

Dipper took a step forward, half thinking about running after her, when he felt his foot nudge at something. Looking down, he saw another skateboard laid out right in front of him.

"What the? Where'd this come from?" he asked, absolutely certain that this board had not been here a second ago. He tentatively put his right foot on the board, checking if it was actually real and not some trick.

"Does she seriously expect me to-?" Without thinking, Dipper lifted his left foot up onto the board and as soon as he did, the skateboard propelled itself forward with an insane burst of speed like a rocket. Dipper screamed in panic, nearly being thrown off the board, his arms flailing wildly in the air as he tried to maintain his balance with only one leg on the board.

He sped out of the alley way and across the street, while spotting the unnamed girl out of the corner of his eye, causally leaning up against the wall of the store, obviously waiting for him.

The skateboard continued moving at high speed with no signs of stopping. Thinking fast, he leaned his weight down on his back heel, lifting up the front of the skateboard and forcing to a halt. Panting like a crazy, he turned around to see the girl still on the other side of the street. She gave Dipper a playful wink, before taking off again down the road on her own board.

Maybe it was the insane burst of adrenaline that was still pumping through his veins or maybe he was just letting his bruised ego was get the best of him, but the only thing Dipper could think of doing right now was going after her. Accepting her challenge, he adjusted his hat, put both feet firmly on the skateboard and kicked off the ground, racing after the girl.

Of course, it would help if Dipper had ever actually ridden one of these things before, but from what he read on the internet, it was all just a matter of balance which Dipper knew to be a science. Right now, he'd just to have learn on the fly. Then again, it would also help if he was the athletic type of twelve-year-old.

Regardless, Dipper pursued the girl down the street and into the town, keeping her within his line of sight. He kicked his back foot off the ground a few more times to gain more momentum, but no matter how hard he tried, the girl maintained the same, consistent lead ahead of him at all times. And the strangest thing was that she didn't even appear to be trying that hard. It was almost like she was flying down the street, her hands stuffed in her pockets, only leaning from side to side to adjust her direction while the skateboard zoomed across over the pavement, seemingly of its own accord as the girl wasn't even pushing it herself. Dipper briefly wondered if there was some kind of electronic motor built into it.

At this rate, Dipper wouldn't get anywhere. Then out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a truck, being driven by Manly Dan, coming up alongside him. Getting an idea, Dipper reached out and grabbed the back bumper of the truck, holding on with both hands. Up ahead of them was a traffic light, currently set at green.

"Hey, Manly Dan!" Dipper yelled. "Bet you can't beat the next red light that's coming up!"

"What?!" Dan roared, enraged. "I'll show you disembodied voice!". He slammed his foot on the break, the truck now charging forward toward the traffic lights. Dipper held his breath tight, waiting for his gamble to pay off as the truck was fast approaching the now flashing amber light. Then at the very last second, the lights changed went from amber to red, forcing Manly Dan to hit the brakes and bring the truck to an abrupt halt. The instant it did, Dipper let go of the bumper and felt his whole body being shot forward by the momentum of the stop like a sling shot. Back behind him, Manly Dan had jumped out of his truck and was now engaging in a fist fight with the traffic light.

With his new speed boost, Dipper was now quickly closing the gap between him and the girl. He was about to collide with her when she made a sharp turn to the left at the last second, leaving Dipper to speed past her. Grabbing a nearby street lamp, Dipper spun himself and his board around, changing his direction to follow the girl.

They next came up to a flight of stairs leading downward into the park. With nothing but a slight bend of her knees, the girl hopped her skateboard onto the railing of the stairs and effortlessly gridded all the way to the bottom, avoiding all the steps. Dipper was fast coming up to the rail and he knew for a fact he couldn't pull off the same move, but he also couldn't afford to lose any speed, otherwise the girl would get away.

Right before he hit the stairs, Dipper jumped off the back of the skateboard, which went flying out over the stairs. As the skateboard flew overhead, Dipper hurriedly started running down the stairs as fast as he could pump his legs, panting rapidly with each step. He reached the bottom of the steps, just as the skateboard landed in front of him, allowing him to jump back on and keep going, with no loss in speed.

The girl smirked as she spotted Dipper still behind her. Deciding to take the game up a notch, she changed direction again, heading straight for a plethora of people gathered around the park. She ducked and weaved through the crowd like they were standing still, but Dipper, on the other hand was not so fortunate, just barely able to avoid smashing into any of the park goers, who jumped out of his way.

Once more, the girl gained the lead on Dipper, passing the small playground area and heading toward the park exit. Clenching his fists in determination, refusing to let the girl escape, Dipper charged right into the playground area, toward the swing set

Gripping the back of the skateboard with his hand, he jumped onto the empty swing seat and used it to fling himself upwards to the top of the nearest slide, traversing down the smooth surface of the ramp at a breakneck speed which launched him even further up through the air, much to the amazement of several young children playing in the sandbox below him, all of whom took the opportunity to pull out their phones and snap a few of photos of Dipper while he was still flying.

The girl reached the exit of the park and glanced behind her, seeing no sign of Dipper. She looked somewhat surprised and perhaps even a bit looking disappointed at her victory, but she quickly shrugged it off again. Her surprise, however, doubled when she felt a shadow pass above her head. Looking up, she soon saw Dipper flying through the sun and landing directly in front of her, blocking her off from the park exit. Before the girl had the chance to do or say anything else, Dipper immediately planted his hand firmly on her shoulder. He had won the girl's game, but he looked anything from pleased about it

Instead he appeared dishevelled and aggravated. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Dipper hopped off the skateboard and advanced on the girl glowering angrily at her.

"Okay. No more games" he said with resolute seriousness. "I don't who you are, I don't know what you want, but if there's one thing I hate doing, it's being somebody else's puppet. So, as of right now, I officially don't care what you could possibly know or who the heck you're supposed to be. So, once again, whoever you are, I bid you a fond-"

In the less than the span of a second, the girl rushed in, grabbing Dipper by the shoulder and kissed him full on the lips, catching him by complete surprised, his eyes nearly bulging out his skull, while the rest of his body felt very odd combination of being both stiff and limp at the same time. After a long moment, the girl broke away from Dipper, the same mischievous smile plastered over her face.

"Samantha" she said. "My name is Samantha".

The girl named Samantha leaned close to the still dumbstruck looking Dipper once again and whispered softly into his ear.

"Word on the street is that the Graffiti Guru is going to strike again tonight. Meet me back here before dark and I'll show you where they're gonna be"

"Why-?" Dipper managed to choke out.

"Am I helping you?" Samantha finished, breaking away from him again. She merely smiled and shrugged. "Truth is, I kind of like you and I'm interested to see how fun you might be. So, I'll see you then"

After giving Dipper one last enigmatic smile, Samantha jumped back onto her skateboard and quickly sped off down the road, soon disappearing out of sight once more.

Dipper stood rooted on the spot, feeling incredibly exhausted in more ways than one. Physically exhausted from the Olympic skateboard marathon excursion he just had experienced and mentally exhausted from trying to process everything that had just occurred in the last fifteen minutes. He felt his hand absently drift up to his mouth, still feeling the lingering sensation of Samantha's kiss on his lips.

"Whoa" he whispered, before chuckling softly. "Good thing that's not my first kiss, otherwise I'd probably faint". Dipper turned about and took three steps forward, when he suddenly paused.

"Oh, wait there it is". And just like that, Dipper fell flat on his face. Again.


	35. Choices

**Absolute Rift**: I do have some ideas for Samantha. I wanted to introduce a character that could shakes up a little with the main cast. But things will get back to the main story afterwards

**Sturm and Dang**: Thank you

**Guest**: Updated. And that seems unlikely, as Vincent can't turn anyone into vampires by biting them. So, he's not the one who will do the biting

**Sorry, for the month-long wait, but I had some exams to do this past month. Also, some good news, I'm starting a full-time job next month. That's also the bad news….**

**I'm not planning to abandon this story, but I can't make any guarantees on the updates, though I will try to have the next update done by the end of next month at the very least. I do love writing this story and I do love all the kind words people have given to me, so I will try to keep this for as long as I can. I'll stop either when the story is finished or I'm forced into a position where I really can't devote any more time to writing, in which case I'd have to stop. So, we'll wait and see how things turn out. All I can ask is that you stick around for another while longer**

**Anywho, on to the chapter**

* * *

Ice cold water poured out from the rusty tap, drippling over Dipper's hands above the grimy sink of Grunkle Stan's bathroom, washing away any excess dirt that may be there. Cupping his hands together, Dipper splashed the water onto his face, refreshing himself with the icy sensation. Over to his immediate right, was the skateboard that Samantha had left for him, standing upright next the sink.

After drying his himself off with a towel and turning off the tap, Dipper began to check his reflection in the mirror above the sink, brushing his hair aside in an unusually meticulous manner, before putting on his hat and carefully adjusting it until he was satisfied with the way he looked, although this did nothing to help settle the deep, unnerving reservations he had over his decision to actually go through with this.

Stepping down from the sink, Dipper took a quick breath to calm himself and picked up the skateboard, which he had subsequently used to make his way back to Mystery Shack (after he woke up again), as well as a spare safety helmet that he had found along the way, and exited the bathroom. Trending his feet as softly as possible, Dipper quietly and swiftly walked down the stairs and into the hallway, while cautiously checking to see if anyone else was around, as he preferred to get away unseen. But any hope of this was dashed when he suddenly ran into both Mabel and Wendy as they rounded the corner on his way to the front door.

"Yo, dude, kicking skateboard!" Wendy complemented once she saw the board in one hand and helmet in the other. "I didn't know you rode. Where'd you get it?"

"I just got today actually" Dipper replied hastily. "I found….er, lying around"

"Where're you going?" Wendy asked.

"I'm following up on hot lead on the Graffiti Guru back in town, so I gotta run. Er, roll. Ride? No, roll is better"

"Sweet" Wendy said with a relaxed smile. "You want us to tag along"

"No!" Dipper said at once. "No, no, you don't have to come. I'll go by myself"

"Well normally I would be coming along with any, Dipper" Mabel said. "But I'm just soooo caught up with my latest crush on that the dreamy trash can. Because that's all I do apparently. Getting crazy crushes on people. That's my whole persona summed up in one singularised, defining character trait". Mabel's face gradually grew angrier as she spoke. "Kinda like how my brother's defining character trait is to be big dummy who never takes anything I say seriously and thinks he's right about everything!"

"Mhmm-hmm, mhmm-hmm" Dipper nodded very quickly as Mabel ranted at him, while simultaneously backtracking his way to the front door. "I can see you're still angry with me, but if I where to find the silver lining in this scenario, it's that this you're won't be following me, which means I can keep anything that may or may not happen all to myself, so let's agree to call this a win"

Making it to the door, Dipper grabbed the handle with his hand behind his back, while still facing Mabel and Wendy and immediately backed out through the door and shutting closed again all in one smooth motion, although this was soon followed by what sounded like Dipper tripping over something and crashing to the ground.

* * *

A short while later, when it was nearing dusk and sky was turning a tint of orange, Dipper was standing outside the entrance of the park, the same place where Samantha had said she would meet him again. Leaning back against the stone wall, Dipper idly started pushing his skateboard back and forth with his foot, wondering when or even if Samantha would show up. He had been spending the last ten minutes rattling his head, weighing the pros and cons over whether or not this was even a good idea in the first place.

He was putting his trust into someone that was a total stranger to him. Someone that he knew nothing of, expect for her name and even that he had to procure with great difficulty. He couldn't really put his finger on it, but there was something about this girl that had captured his attention from the moment he saw her. Maybe it was her appearance, maybe it was her attitude, but it was like some kind of weird aroma that she gave off that could somehow make Dipper forget about everything else around him, like a strange, intoxicated sense of bliss. This only served to make him even feel more worried about meeting her again, as he usually preferred to keep his wits about himself

But strangest thing was, that while he felt anxious, he also couldn't help but feel excited at the idea of seeing Samantha again. Despite how disarming she could be, she was also so….engaging. The way she spoke and interacted with him, Dipper felt like he had to constantly remain on his toes and improvise to whatever she threw at him. In a way, this was actually very exhilarating. It was the same way Dipper felt during an adventure or when trying to solve a mystery. Samantha was so unpredictable and unsuspecting, that Dipper couldn't help but be intrigued in her.

And to top it all off was the fact that she had kissed him. Yeeeeaaah. Dipper did _not_ possess the necessary skills or emotional wherewithal to even know how to begin processing that.

It's true, he had feelings for Wendy before and in a way, he still does, but that relationship never went anywhere or even existed for that matter. Now he had met a girl who was within his own age bracket and who apparently was interested in him, not simply the other way around for once. Although Dipper couldn't be certain, the fact that she was the one to kiss him must be proof that she really did like him. Why else would she have kissed him like that unless it meant that she liked him? Did she enjoy kissing him? He certainly enjoyed kissing her, so did that mean he liked her back? Is that how kissing is supposed to work? Dipper had always assumed that was how it worked, but then again, he hadn't much experience with kissing girls or what it was supposed to mean. Well except for…

"Hey, Dipper" said a familiar voice.

Dipper jumped with fright at the sound of that voice, inadvertently kicking his skateboard up in the air, barely managing to catch it. He turned around, expecting to see Samantha standing before him, but to his surprise, it turned out to be the one girl that he wasn't expecting to show up.

"Oh, hey, Pacifica" Dipper said.

"What's with you?" she asked as she approached him. "Expecting someone else?"

"Not exactly sure" he said dryly, rubbing the back of his neck. "What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to go down and practice my mini-golf, but those little golf ball people still won't let me in" Pacifica said, with some scorn. "My lawyers are meeting with their lawyers in the morning. Anyway, I went and did some extreme shopping instead, which takes roughly the same effort as mini-golf. "What's up with the skateboard?" she asked, indicting to his board and helmet. "Didn't think that was really your sort of thing"

"Well, you know, it's really not that hard once you try it" Dipper said, standing up on the board, having grown some appreciation for his new mode of transportation.

"So, what, are you parkouring or whatever now?" Pacifica asked.

"Uh, no. Remember that graffiti thing from this morning? I'm doing an investigation to find out who's behind. I'm doing it as a…. _favour_ to Sheriff Bulbs and Deputy Durland. Also, they paid Grunkle Stan twenty bucks. So, that's my going rate I guess" he said, with a deadpanned expression.

"How come Mabel isn't here helping you?" Pacifica asked, looking around, as if expecting to see her.

"She's kinda mad at me right now" Dipper explained. "I brought up the thing with Vincent and now she's dating a trash can to make some kind of point. Figured I better just give her some space for a while. So, I'm riding solo on this one, I guess. Literally"

There was a moment of silence between them, as Pacifica gave Dipper an odd look of what may have been sympathy or tentativeness. She bit her lower lip, as though on the tethering on the verge of saying something. In less than a second, her expression changed completely, shifting from hesitance and uncertainty to pompous exasperation and disgust.

"Okay, fine. I get the message" she said, throwing up her hands, trying to sound as unenthusiastic as possible. "I'll tag along. I mean, I'd literally have a _million_ better things to do, but since you're clearly going to be in such an emotional wreck if I don't come, I guess I'll have to. You can stop begging me"

Dipper was initial taken back by Pacifica's statement, but soon started to grin impishly at her. "Oh, I was begging you, was I?" he said, sarcastically.

"_Please_ don't start crying" Pacifica said snobbishly, now preoccupied with the condition of her own nails. "I already said I'd come. After all, who wouldn't want to spend time with me of all people?"

Dipper couldn't help but to roll his eye and chuckle humorously at her comment. "Oh, yes, by all means. Please grace me with the pleasure of your charming company, Madame Northwest" he said, adopting a much more regal tone and stature, twirling one hand in the air and bending down on one knee.

Pacifica now started to laugh as well. "Why, Monsieur Dipper, your etiquette skills, as they say, le stink on ice"

Unable to contain themselves, the two of them burst out laughing again, surprised by the amount of enjoyment their playful banter was producing.

"Well, you know one thing is for sure, Pacifica" Dipper said, after a moment. "You are definitely one of kind. I can't think of anyone who can be as equally mean and equally nice the way you can"

Pacifica chuckled again, dodging Dipper's eye as her cheeks briefly flushed with colour. "Hey, you should be happy somebody is willing to put up with a major geek like you. I mean who else is going to-"

From out of nowhere came a gust of wind that swept past the two of them and along with it, came Samantha, riding her black skateboard, sliding her way in between Dipper and Pacifica, her back to the latter of the two. A large duffel bag was slung over her shoulder.

"You're here" she said, addressing only Dipper, smiling. "Good. Ready to go?"

"Oh! Hey, Samantha" Dipper said, surprised by her abrupt appearance, that familiar sense of nervousness now returning to him as he gazed into her violet eye. "Yeah, uh, I'm ready to go"

From behind Samantha, Pacifica attempted to peek around her head to get a better view of Dipper. When this didn't work, she cleared her throat loudly in order to get their attention. However, neither Dipper nor Samantha took notice of her and instead just continued their conversation.

"What is this for?" Samantha chortled with incredulity, gesturing to the helmet under Dipper's arm.

"Well, you know, safety first and all that" he replied, putting the helmet on his head.

"Oh, you do not need this" she said, pulling off the helmet before he could secure it, carelessly tossing it away. "You got to learn to live a little dangerously".

Pacifica cleared her throat again, in a much more excessive manner, becoming increasingly incensed at the lack of attention she was receiving.

"You sure about that?" Dipper said, not hearing Pacifica and continued talking to Samantha. "Because I've read that more than 50% of all head trauma related injuries are due to improper helmet safety"

Samantha leaned in closer to Dipper and playfully stroked underneath his chin with her two fingers, causing him to freeze up like a deer caught in a head light

"Well then, you better make sure _not_ to fall" she said flirtatiously

Pacifica let out very loud, guttural noise that barely even sounded human. At this point did Dipper finally take his eyes off Samantha and back on Pacifica. "Oh, sorry, about that Pacifica" he said, embarrassed at forgetting her.

Samantha turned around and finally registered Pacifica with a look of surprise so convincing, you'd swear that she really had no idea anyone was behind her.

"Huh, for a second there I thought someone had blown a gasket or something" she said.

Pacifica glared darkly at Samantha, not the least bit amused by her statement.

"Who are you?" she said, more as demand than a simple question

"Who are you?" Samantha replied, smiling back at her coyly.

"Pacifica Northwest" Pacifica said with a surprising sense of pride, which didn't betray her growing impatience. "And I asked who _you_ were!"

Seeing where this was going, Dipper quickly stepped in between the two girls, in an attempt to keep the situation from getting out of hand. "Sorry, Pacifica. This is Samantha" he said. "She's-"

"I'm his girlfriend" Samantha said, before Dipper could get another word out.

Both Dipper and Pacifica each took on an equally dumbfounded looking expression on their faces, so alike it was eerily uncanny. Pacifica managed to recover first and threw Dipper an accusing glare. Dipper himself looked as though someone had just flipped the on-off switch of his brain to off

"I-I-I have no idea how to respond to this" he said.

"You-you're his girlfriend?" Pacifica said with a note of disbelief and what could possibly be mistaken as despair in her voice.

"Yeah, we met today and I guess, well, something clicked between us" Samantha said. "Now we're practically inseparable". She moved in closer to Dipper and put her arm around his, leaning her head down his shoulder, causing him to turn a deep shade of crimson.

Pacifica gaped at the two of them, looking shocked and disheartened for reasons she was entirely sure, until she narrowed her eyes in a suspicion glare.

"Okay, is this me being punked here? Is Mabel in the bushes waiting to spring out at me?" she asked while glancing around the street, expecting someone to pop out at any second. "You seriously expect me believe that you, of all people, got a girlfriend in like five minutes since the last time I saw you? Yeah, like, I'm so sure"

"Omg girl, you are like, so totally cray-cray" Samantha said, putting on a ditzy sounding accent. "Like, no duh, I mean like, gag me with a spoon. If you can't like totally get with the general vibe, you like totally, have to, uh, like learn, like for real. As if, whateves, chill out, y'all." Samantha paused for a moment. "Does it that explain it better to you?" she asked, her voice returning to normal. "My valley speak is a little rusty."

The colour in Pacifica's cheeks rose a small degree as she glowered dangerously at Samantha. "First off, I don't talk like that. And second, do you have even the slightest idea who I am or what I am capable of doing?" she said, advancing on Samantha, looking her dead in the eye. Samantha herself held her ground and simply stared back at her with a lazy, carefree smile.

Watching from the side lines, Dipper grimaced in anticipation of the explosion that was about to occur. But what Samantha said next took both him and Pacifica by surprise.

"Oh, my goodness, I'm so, so sorry" Samantha said, her voice instantly becoming contrite. "I didn't mean to come off as so abrasive there. That was rude of me. I'm so sorry if I offended you".

Pacifica recoiled from Samantha in confusion, caught off guard by her abrupt shift in character. In an instant, her entire demeanour, voice and mannerisms had all changed, going from impetuous to innocent and remorseful. The effect was so convincing that it couldn't have been simple sarcasm or dry wit. It was like she had turned herself into a different person on the spur of the moment.

"This is all just so new for me" Samantha said, putting one hand over her chest in a fluttering manner. "I mean, I see my boyfriend talking to another pretty girl and I guess I really couldn't help but get the wrong impression".

Behind Samantha, Dipper raised his hands up the air helplessly, giving Pacifica a look of pure desperation, himself at a complete loss to what was even happening anymore.

"I'm ashamed to admit it, but it was my first instinct to get jealous like that. I'm sure you can only imagine what that must feel like Patricia" Samantha said, placing a gently hand on her shoulder.

"It's Pacifica!" she growled through her teeth, but Samantha continued on.

"The humiliating and unbearable sting of watching someone else have what you don't and having to live with the crushing realisation that you'll never, ever have what they do". Samantha put her hand over her mouth in surprise, giggling in a particularly girlish fashion. "Oh, but listen to me talk about things you can't have. You're clearly the type who comes from money. I'm sure there's nothing you don't have, short of meaningful human relationships and experiences based on things aside from your wealth and social status"

Pacifica opened her mouth to say something but for the first time in her life, she found herself to be at a loss for words.

"I hope you can forgive me for my misconduct. And who knows? I'm sure in time, we can be the best of friends". Without warning, Samantha wrapped her arms around Pacifica shoulders, giving her a brief hug. Pacifica made no attempt to return the hug. Instead she stood stock still, looking as though she had been horribly violated in some way.

"Well, it was nice meeting you" Samantha said, detaching herself. "But Dipper and I have a date planned and we really just want to be by ourselves. So better get moving. See you around, Patricia".

Taking Dipper by the hand, Samantha started to lead him away, pulling him onto his skateboard alongside her own, absolutely powerless to resist her at this point. Pacifica watched them as they began to sped off into the distance, Dipper calling back to her.

"I just want to know I am personally very conflicted about this, but also at the same time, not totally 100% against it!"

* * *

Back at the Mystery Shack, Mabel was sitting at the kitchen table. Across from her on the opposite chair, was the trash can she earlier proclaimed her love for as part of her elaborate plan to prove to Dipper that she didn't get random crushes on people or inanimate objects. Unfortunately, things looked to be taking a turn for the weird instead.

"I'm sorry it's come to this" Mabel said to the trash can, with deep regret in her voice. "But we can't keep this charade up any longer. I thought I was past all this! I know we promised ourselves that we wouldn't make fools of ourselves by trying. But, then, maybe…." Mabel raised her head and with glistening eyes of unbridled emotion, she stared deeply into the trash can's, um…face? "Maybe we'd be fools for _not_ trying"

Slowing, Mabel leaned in closer toward the trash can, the rest of the world fading away, as nothing mattered but this moment. Luckily, before this romantic display could go reach a point where there was no coming back from, the door slammed open as Pacifica came bragging into the kitchen, a look of pure fury etched over her face.

"Mabel! Explanations. Now!"

Reacting fast, Mabel quickly knocked the trash can off the chair and threw her hands up. "It's not what it looks like! It's not my fault! I tried not giving into my old habits, but he suckered in me in with his environmental conscientiousness. Is it so wrong to want to fill a trash can with the garbage of my love?"

"Wha?" Pacifica said, momentarily confused. "No, I'm talking about Dipper. How the heck did he get a girlfriend?!"

Mabel's eye widened in stunned surprise, immediately forgetting about her own subplot. "Whoa, whoa, he got a what!? "she said, hopping off the chair. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't know, you tell me! I met him in town earlier and apparently, he's going out a date with some fashion inept punk-rocker girl wannbe on a skateboard"

"Oh, I remember her!" Mabel said, recollecting what had happened earlier this morning. "She was here today looking to buy some gum and I remember that Dipper went all googled eyed when she showed up"

"And what, did he like ask her out right then and there?" Pacifica said, advancing on Mabel in an aggressive manner. "Did she ask him? Did they exchange social history together? Has he updated his relationship status? I need details!"

"I don't know what happened" Mabel said helplessly, raising her hands up as though to shield herself from Pacifica's wrath. "After she showed up, Dipper left the Shack by himself, then he came back, and then he left again. He said that he was going to out to find out about that Graffiti Guru thing. But he also said that he wanted didn't me or Wendy to go with him".

Mabel paused for a moment as she considered this, before letting out a sudden gasp, a wide grin slowly breaking over her face as she came to a conclusion. "Which means he must have lied about he was really doing because he didn't want us to know that he was really going out a date!"

Mabel released shrill, ear-piercing sequel, so loud that its cracked one of the windows. Pacifica winced in an expression of pain and clutched her left ear which was now on the verge of popping.

In the underground basement, miles below the Mystery Shack, Grunkle Stan casually took a sip of his coffee, when the mug he was holding shattered into pieces, much to his stunned befuddlement.

"Dipper is out on his first date!" Mabel said, bounding up and down, ecstatic to the point she might have literally exploded. "Oh, I'm so happy! I can't wait until he gets home and I get all the embarrassing details out of him!"

"We're not waiting that long" Pacifica snapped, roughly grabbing Mabel by the hand. "Come on, we're going to go spy on them and find out exactly what they're doing!"

"Hurray, girl's night out!" Mabel said cheerfully, as Pacifica dragged her along

"Now, where did they go?" she asked

"I don't know"

Pacifica stopped in her tracks and turned back to Mabel. "What do you mean you don't know? He didn't tell you where he was going?"

"He didn't tell me he was on a date" Mabel shrugged.

"How are we supposed to find out what he's doing then?" Pacifica demanded.

"Well, we could wait until tomorrow and then follow Dipper around tomorrow to see if he meets this girl again" Mabel suggested

"So, what are we going do until then?" Pacifica said angrily.

Mabel thought briefly about this in silence before speaking. "Wanna have an extreme make over slash slumber party?"

Pacifica gave Mabel a deadpanned stare, and appeared to be on the verge of saying no, but then after a moment, she crossed her arms and shrugged indifferently. "Yeah, alright"

* * *

Speeding down the deserted sidewalk, Dipper felt the sharp gust of wind brush past his face as he skated across the solid pavement. As with most sporting related activity, Dipper had never really considered taking up skateboarding before, but now that he was actually here doing it, he couldn't help but find it quite enjoyable and was starting to feel pretty proficient at how he was riding.

This feeling of accomplish was cut abruptly short when his skateboard ran over a small pebble in his path, which sent enough of a jolt to wobble the board and throw off Dipper's balance in a comical manner, before he hurriedly threw his arms in up in the air to steady himself. He slowed himself down and cautiously kept his hands up, being careful to avoid any further mistake that could send him crashing.

Samantha pulling up beside him on her own skateboard. Unlike him, she was riding along at a leisurely pace, one hand in her pocket and the other over the strap of her duffel bag. She glanced casually in Dipper's direction, which suddenly made him feel much more self-conscious over his appearance. He immediately lowered his arms back down and put his hands into his pockets, grinning nervously in an attempt to exude as much outward confidence as possible and not give away any sign that he was having difficulty.

If Samantha was impressed or unimpressed by his display, she didn't show it. She just smiled mysteriously at him as she always did and pointed her index finger up ahead. Curious, Dipper turned his head in the direction she was pointing and had only just enough time to see the oncoming lap post that he was about to collide with. He quickly pulled his himself to side, narrowly dodging the post by a hairs breadth.

Samantha laughed at his near miss and trotted on ahead. Dipper followed after her, but he was pretty sure that his self-esteem was left somewhere behind hm. After skating for another few minutes, Samantha eventually pulled over at the end of a street corner, promoting Dipper to do the same. Samantha picked up her skateboard and set it standing up against a nearby wall. She didn't say a word to Dipper, but he was compelled to do the same as her and put his skateboard beside hers.

He tried not to show it, but he was growing impatience with the perpetual silence between them and was tethering on the verge of blurting out any one of his hundred questions that he was bursting to ask, if even just for the satisfaction of saying it out loud. Samantha, however, seemed to read his mind and beat him to it.

"Something you want to say to me?" she asked, turning around to face him.

Briefly caught off guard, Dipper cleared his throat, carefully considering how to reply. "Okay, look, Samantha, I'm not sure what's the best way for me to say this. The truth is, you're, like, _really_ cool and everything, but I'm a bit worried that you might also be totally insane as well"

"Not the worst thing I've been called" Samantha shrugged.

"What I mean is, you keep consistently showing up in my life but I don't even know the first thing about you. I don't where you come from, who your parents are. I don't even know your last name"

"Why bog ourselves down with details?" Samantha said, smiling once again. She walked over to a nearby lap post and wrapped her arm around it, letting her whole body swing in the air. "Just enjoy the moment"

"Something tells me I'd enjoy the moment a lot more if you told me what you know about the Graffiti Guru" Dipper replied, wanting to get down to business. "That's was the deal, wasn't it?"

"Hmm, I suppose it was, wasn't it?" Samantha said, pulling herself closer to the lap post. "Okay, I'll tell you, but first you have to tell me something"

Dipper sighed. "You seriously can't just tell me outright? Why is everything such a challenge with you?"

"You don't like challenges?" Samantha asked coyly, staring at Dipper, her face half hidden behind the post.

Dipper opened his mouth to speak, raising his index finger, but then paused, unable to think of anyway of refuting that statement without technically lying. Seeing that, yet again, Samantha had totally disarmed him, he reluctantly chose to go along with her request.

"What do you want to know?" he said.

Samantha smiled, clearly pleased with his response. "Why exactly are you trying to find the Graffiti Guru? What did you choose to go looking for him?"

"Well I didn't exactly choose anything" Dipper replied. "See, what happened was, Sheriff Bulbs and Deputy Durland asked me to find the Graffiti Guru for them because they couldn't handle it on their own, so my Grunkle Stan volunteered me to help after they paid him some money. I had something else planned that I wanted to do today, but now I'm here doing this instead"

Samantha, who had been listening to intently to Dipper's story, was no longer smiling and for once seemed perfectly serious.

"So, you didn't really want to be here in the first place?" she said. "Someone else just put you up to it?"

"Well, yeah, but it's not really new" Dipper said, dismissively. "Grunkle Stan orders me around all the time. Not like I have a lot of say in it"

"Of course you don't" Samantha said, and for the first time since Dipper had met, she sounded angry. "When the adults tell us to do something, we're just supposed to do it no questions asked huh?"

"I suppose" Dipper said, awkwardly, taken back her by reaction. "Look, you said you would tell me what you know"

"Ok, fine" Samantha said, smiling once more. She let go of the lap post and beckoned Dipper to come closer to her. He approached her and leaned in as she started to whisper in his ear

"I have on good authority that the Graffiti Guru is going to strike at the Gravity Falls Gossiper tonight. But you didn't hear it from me". Dipper pulled away from Samantha in surprise. He took a second to consider this information, before unconsciously turning his head to the other side of the street. Sure enough, there was the Gravity Falls Gossiper, right across from them. Dipper looked back to Samantha, who gave him a sly wink.

Making his way across the empty street, Dipper stood opposite to the Gossiper, which appeared to be vacant at the moment as he could see no lights coming from inside.

"So now, all we have to do is wait the Graffiti Guru to turn up and catch him in the act" Dipper said, triumphantly. Samantha walked over to join him, carrying her duffel bag. "This is perfect. Thanks a lot for this Samantha. You've been a big help. By the way, how did you figure out that he'd will be here tonight?" he asked sincerely.

Instead of answering Dipper, Samantha put her duffel bag on the ground and unzipped it open. She pulled out a small metal can and tossed it into Dipper's hands. He caught the can with ease and stared down at it, not taking him very long to deduce from the cover and nozzle on the top, that this a can of spray paint. Dipper stared back and forth between the can and Samantha, who was grinning impishly at him. A very painful and humiliating realisation was now dawning onto him.

"Annnnd, you're the Graffiti Guru" he said, his voice sounding perfectly calm and restrained, yet inside, he was screaming his lungs out in frustration. "Yup. Never living this one down. Mabel must never know"

"You know, I don't necessarily mind the infamy, but that name is so stupid". Samantha pulled out a newspaper from her duffel bag, which sported a bold headline that read '_Gravity Falls Gripped by Graffiti Guru'_.

"I mean, come on. The Graffiti Guru?" Samantha said, reading over the heading with compete disgust. "Who could think of something so lame sounding? Now it's time for a little payback."

"That's why you're doing?" Dipper said, his initial shock beginning to lessen enough for him to respond. "For revenge?"

"Eh, revenge is an ugly word" Samantha said. "I prefer excitement. And sometimes I need a little incentive to get me started. First it was the arcade place ate half of my quarters. Then there was the diner place with the cyclops lady burnt my eggs. And later the clerk who works at the grocery store kicked me out just because I tried to shoplift a packet of gum. Tonight's main event is brought to us by Toby Determined, the lame brain who wrote that story up about me."

"Wait a minute" Dipper said defiantly. "You can't deface Toby Determined's building just because he wrote something about you in his paper that you don't agree with. Journalism is a hard and thankless business and the people who do it for a living certainly don't deserve to be horrible crucified for simply reporting the facts"

"Oh, please, it's only a little bit of paint" Samantha said, totally unfazed by Dipper's seriousness. "He can clean it off. Besides, it's all in fun. That's why I brought you out here in the first place. We can do it together"

"What?!" Dipper said, sounding mortified by her suggestion. "I can't do that. That's not fun at all!"

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because it's…. wrong?" Dipper stated, unsure of how that could not possibly be any clearer.

"And why exactly is it wrong?" Samantha said, evidently not seeing his perspective. "Because some adult made a rule that says so? Pfff. Who cares what adults think? They're only making rule and restrictions like that to take away your ability to make decisions."

"What do you mean, take away my ability to make decisions?" Dipper said, unconfused by her statement.

"Say you want some ice cream before you go to bed, right?" Samantha said. "But then an adult told you that you're not allowed to have ice cream before bed. Then they're taking the option away from you in the first place. You can't choose to have ice cream because there's a rule that tells you can't. You're only able to do what other people are allowing you to do"

"Or maybe, someone came to the logical conclusion that having ice cream before bed will end up making you sick, so they put in that rule for your own benefit" Dipper reasoned.

"I'd rather eat ice cream and get sick, then have someone else try to tell me what they think is best for me. I make my own decisions on what I want to do."

"So, what you want is to plaster graffiti over other people's property?" Dipper said, unimpressed.

"That's my choice" Samantha said, sounding both proud and satisfied. "You want something and then you make it happen. It's called freedom. And the greatest feeling in the world and it's even better when you're doing something that everyone says you're not supposed to. Rules are only good for breaking, so let's break a couple"

"But aren't you worried that you'll get into trouble?" Dipper asked.

Samantha stared at Dipper with a blank expression for a long while, before bursting out laughing.

"You really need to stop thinking so much" she said, promptly taking Dipper by the hand once again. "In real life, you gotta learn by doing. Come on, I'll show you"

Samantha started to pull Dipper forward and for a second, it he felt almost compelled to let her take him wherever she wanted, but then pulled himself free from her grip.

"No, no, wait" he said, throwing his hands up in refusal. "I'm not going along with this. You tricked me. You said you would tell me about the Graffiti Guru"

"And I did tell you about him, didn't I?" Samantha said, smiling. "And no, I didn't trick you into anything"

"You lured me here under a false pretence!" Dipper said accusingly.

"But I didn't take away your choice, did I?" Samantha said with a simple shrug. "Nobody made you come here. You choose to come here. You could have ignored me if you wanted to. But instead you wanted to meet me here because you _wanted_ to see me again, didn't you?".

Samantha moved in closer to Dipper and began to playfully ruffle his shirt with her finger. "Because you wanted to see where this thing between us might go" she said, flashing her violet eyes at him.

Dipper blushed deeply and felt a fresh wave of sweat trickling down his neck. In the back of his mind, he could feel that same light headedness he had felt earlier creeping back up on him. He instinctively closed his eyes, in the hope that may shield him from this effect

"I-I-I didn't….I mean, that I-I-I…" Dipper stuttered nervously. "Look-look there's no… _thing _between the two of us, ok? I don't even know. And the reason I came here was because I wanted to out more about you. I mean, the Graffiti Guru! Which turned out to be you…that's what I said you at first, because that happens to be you too….and I wanted to learn more about that…side of…you".

"So, you just wanted to find the Graffiti Guru?" Samantha said.

"That's right" Dipper said, firmly.

Samantha smiled in smug satisfaction. "But that's _not_ what you wanted to do today though, is it?"

Dipper's stomach dropped in horror. She had trapped him yet again.

"You're only here because someone else took away your ability to make decision. Didn't you say that your grandpa-"

"Grunkle" Dipper corrected politely.

"Whatever. You said he put you up to doing this because those two idiot cops were too lazy to try and find me themselves. So now you're stuck having to deal with their problems because they made decisions for you, without your say in the matter. You want to tell me that's fair?"

"Well…..no" Dipper admitted, the genuine unfairness of the situation too difficult to overlook. "But technically Grunkle Stan is my guardian for the summer, so I have to listen to what he says, even if I don't always like it"

"Because you're the kid and he's the adult, but it would never be the other way around now, would it?" Samantha said, her expression now turning angry again. "Being a kid is supposed to be the best time of your life. The time where you can do or be anything you want, but _they_ put a wet blanket over your fun. Telling you what to do, what not to do. Always treating us like we don't know any better, like we need to them. Don't you hate that?"

Dipper stood in silence, letting Samantha's words sink and became increasingly unsettled by how much he found himself to be agreeing with her.

"Ok, yes, I get what you're saying" he said, after a moment. "That is really annoying and unfair. But that's just how things work isn't? Adults have to know what's best for us, because they're…. adults"

"Here's the real deal" Samantha said, taking out a stick of gum and throwing it into her mouth. "Adults are the biggest kids out of everyone. The only difference is they can be petty, immature and selfish all they want and no one reprimands them for it. So, forget about what other people think, forget about what rules they throw your way, and just do whatever you want to do. You just have to stop being such a little kid"

"I'm not a little kid" Dipper said, now sounding forceful. "I can decide things for myself"

"Prove it then" she insisted. "Show me what you got. What are you so afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid, I just think-"

"That's your problem. You keep thinking, instead of acting" Samantha said, poking Dipper sharply in his forehead. "Remember how we met today? You didn't who I was or what I wanted, but that didn't stop you from hopping on that skateboard and chasing right after me?"

Dipper tried to open his mouth to retort, but Samantha continued pressing into him

"You reacted instinctively. You weren't worrying about consequence or rules. All that mattered was the feeling you got out of doing something spontaneous. That's how you should be living life. Jumping head first into the deep end and never being afraid to make an impulsive choice"

"But how do you just turn off your sense of reason and act impulsively?" Dipper asked. "I mean, is there like twelve step guide or maybe-"

Samantha answered Dipper by seizing him by the collar and planting yet another kiss on his lips. That made it three for three now and much to Dipper's satisfaction, kisses, as it turns out, consistently felt amazing.

"Like that" Samantha said, breaking away from him. "I decided that I want to kiss you, so I kissed you. And I also decided I want to be your girlfriend, because you're more like me than you realise". Samantha slipped her arm around Dipper's shoulders, a gesture suited either for a lifelong friend or an opportunistic businessman.

"So, what you decide to do?" she asked. She held out a spray can in front of Dipper, waiting to see if he'd take it or not. Moving like a zombie, Dipper slowly reached his hand out and took the spray can from her and clutched it in both hands, in an almost innocently manner.

Walking over to the Gossiper, he stood staring at the blank wall. He hadn't fainting yet, so he took that as a good sign, but his mind felt so numb he wasn't even sure if he was the one moving his body anymore. He glanced back to Samantha, who merely gestured to him encouragingly.

"It's only bit of paint" Dipper said under his breath, his words less assuring than he thought they'd be, yet this was not enough to dissuade him from his present course of action. "No one's going to get hurt. Just be gotta be…. spontaneous"

Even though it went against his better nature, Dipper stopped thinking about the future and only focused on the present as he pressed his finger down on the nozzle

* * *

**So, that happened. Any thoughts on Dipper's characterisation? I know maybe it's too repetitive to have him be giving into peer pressure, but I tried to make it seem more like that he's just very enamoured by Samantha's charm. In many ways, she's represents the definition of a bad influence. And there are more surprises to come from her later**

**Anywho, hope you liked the chapter. Please leave a review and I will hopefully get back to you soon**

**Peace out**


End file.
